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^ GENEALOGY COLLECTION
THE MONROS OF AUCHINBOWIE
THE MONROS
OF AUCHINBOWIE
AND COGNATE FAMILIES
BY
JOHN ALEXANDER INGLIS
EDINBURGH
PRIVATELY PRINTED BY T. AND A. CONSTABLE
PRINTERS TO HIS MAJESTY
1911
15013f^7
INTRODUCTION
My object has been to trace and arrange as accurately as
possible the historical material relating to a branch of the
Monro family, which I have called for convenience the
* Monros of Auchinbowie.'
As I have made a full disclosure of my authorities, and
have provided a copious index, I hope the book may be
useful to other workers in the field of genealogy.
I have included the Bimiing family, as they were direct
ancestors of Mrs. Alexander Monro (Secundus), whose younger
son, David, inherited the family name and traditions from
his cousin, WUliam Binning, the last of his race.
The last five chapters deal with the Scotts of Bavelaw
and the Boyds of Kipps and of Temple. They also were
direct ancestors of the later Monros through the Binnings,
and though I have httle to offer except the bare facts of
genealogy and land-transfer, I have included them for the
sake of completeness.
I must gratefully acknowledge the kindness of my friend,
Mr. James Steuart, W.S., who read my manuscript, and
made several valuable suggestions.
CONTENTS
I. THE EAKLY HISTORY OF THE MONEOS
II. SIR ALEXANDER MONRO OF BEARCEOFTS
III. COLONEL GEORGE MONRO OF AUCHINBOWIE AND HIS
DESCENDANTS
IV. JOHN MONRO, SURGEON IN EDINBURGH .
V. PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (PRIMUS) .
VI. SIR DONALD MACDONALD OF SLEAT .
VII. JOHN MONRO OF AUCHINBOWIE, ADVOCATE .
VIII. DR. DONALD MONRO
IX. PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (SECUNDUS)
X. PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {TEBTIUS)
XI. DR. JAMES CARMICHAEL-SMYTH
XII. DAVID MONRO BINNING AND HIS DESCENDANTS
XIII. THE FAMILY OF PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO
(TEBTIUS)
XIV. THE BINNINGS OF WALLYFORD
XV. SIR WILLIAM BINNING .
XVL CHARLES BINNING OF PILMUIR
XVII. THE MONTGOMERYS OF BROOMLANDS
XVIIL THE SCOTTS OF BAVELA.W
126
134
141
162
viii CONTENTS
XIX. LAURENCE SCOTT OF HARPERRIG, DIED 1637
XX. LAURENCE SCOTT OF BAVELAW, DIED 1669
XXL THE BOYDS OF KIPPS ....
XXIL STEPHEN BOYD OF TEMPLE .
INDEX
170
187
195
207
211
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. auchinbowie ....... 47
2. John Monro ....... 54
3. Professor Alexander Monro {Primus) ... 57
4. Mrs. George Home of Argaty ..... 84
5. Professor Alexander Monro (Secundus) ... 89
6. Mrs. Alexander Monro (Secundus) . . . .107
7. Professor Alexander Monro (Tertius) . . . Ill
8. Mrs. Alexander Monro (Tertius) . . . .119
9. Bavelaw ........ 174
Nos. 2, 6, arid 7 are from pictures belonging to Major Geai-ge Monro,
No. 4 is frmn a picture belonging to A. IF. Monro of Auchin-
botvie, Nos. 3, 5, and 8 are from engravings.
COATS OF ARMS
1. Sir Alexander Monro
2. Sir Donald Macdonald .
3. Professor Alexander Monro (Secundus)
i. Sir William Binning
5. George Montgomery of Broom lands .
6. Laurence Scott of Bavelaw
Title-page
"78
107
135
163
PEDIGREES
1. Monro
3. Binning
3. Scott
4. Boyd
132
164
194
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES
Books of C. and S. = Books of Council and Session.
G. R. S.= General Register of Sasines.
P. R. S.=: Particular Register of Sasines.
P. C. R. = Register of the Privy Council of Scotland.
R. M. S. = Registrum Magni Sigilli, Register of the Great Seal of Scotland.
R. P. S.=Register of the Privy Seal.
CHAPTER I
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MONROS
The home of the clan Munro is a district lying into the
Mackenzie country on the north shore of the Cromarty Firth.
The chief seat of the clan is, and has been since the beginning
of the twelfth century, the Castle of Foulis, and the Barons
of FouHs trace their descent from Hugh Munro, who died
about 1126.
The branch of the family which includes Sir Alexander
Monro of Bearcrofts and the Monros of Auchinbowie is said
to have sprung from John Monro of Milntown, son of Hugh
Munro, ninth Baron of Foulis. The Milntown family are the
senior cadets of the clan, and their descendants are distin-
guished from the other branches by the spelling of the name
' Monro.' MUntown lies on the Bay of Nigg near the site of
the present Tarbat House.
John Monro, who lost an arm at a clan fight between the
Munros and the Mackintoshes at Clachnaharry in 1454, is
described as ' a bold, forward, daring gentleman, esteemed
by his sovereign and loved by his friends.' ^ He died about
1475, and was succeeded by his elder son, Andrew Mor
Monro, ' a bold, austere and gallant gentleman, esteemed
by his friends and a terror to his enemies.'
About the year 1500 Andrew built the castle of Milntown
in spite of the opposition of his neighbours, the Rosses of
Balnagown. ' John Earl of Sutherland went himseK in
person to defend them [the Monros] from Balnagown' s brag-
' Mackenzie, History of the Munros, pp. 265-76.
A
2 EARLY HISTORY
gings . . . which kindness the Monros of Mihitown do acknow-
ledge to this day.' ^ The Kalendar of Fearn says : ' On the
12th of May 1642 the house of Mihitown was neghgently
burnt by ane keai's [jackdaw's] nest.' Only the vaults remain.
Andrew died in 1501, and was succeeded by his son,
Andrew Beg Monro, the Black Baron, who lives in tradition
as a cruel, bloodthirsty sensualist. He greatly increased his
possessions in the county of Ross, his most important pur-
chase being in 1505, when he obtained a charter of the lands
of Dalcarty, Dochcarty or Dawachcarty near DingwaU.^ In
1512 he was appointed by James iv. to be Chief Maor of the
Earldom of Ross,^
Black Andrew married * Euphemia, daughter of James
Dunbar of Tarbat and BaUone Castle, Easter Ross, and had
at least three sons. He died at MUntown before 1522, ' in
great extravagance and confusion,' and was buried at the
church of Kilmuir Easter.
George Monro of Mihitown and Dalcarty, his eldest son
and successor, was appointed in 1556 to be Custumar ^ (collector
of customs) of Inverness, Ross, Sutherland and Caithness,
and in 1560 to be Bailie and Chamberlain of the Crown lands
and lordships of Ross and Cromarty. He held these offices
till his death. In 1543 he acquired ® from John Bisset,
Chaplain of Newmore, the lands of Newmore, about five
mUes west of MUntown, and in 1570 disponed ^ them to his
eldest son, Andrew. In 1559 he obtained a charter in favour
of himself and his third son, Donald, from Sir Robert Melville,
Chaplain of Tarlogie, of the lands of Tarlogie, two miles north-
west of Tain.
^ Sir Robert Gordon, Earldom of Sutherland, p. 146.
2 E. M. S., 1424-1513, No. 2830.
3 lb., No. 3746.
* Macfarlane's Genealogical Collections (Scot. Hist. Soc), i. 194.
' Exchequer Bolls, vols. xix. and xx.
8 R. P. S., fol. 14-15.
' Old Rosshire, W. Macgill, No. 25.
EARLY HISTORY 3
George Monro married Janet, daughter of James Fraser
of Phopachy, and had at least three sons and three daughters.
He died at Milntown on November 1, 1576, and was buried
at Kilmuir Easter. Andrew, the eldest son, carried on the
line of Milntown, Newmore and Dalcarty, but the family
with which we are concerned are descended from George, one
of the younger sons.
George Monro was educated at Aberdeen for the ministry,
and became one of the leaders of the Reformed Church in
the north. On December 21, 1570 he was appointed by
James vi. to the chaplaincy of Newmore ' with provision that
he continue his study quhill he be able to administrat the
Word of God.' ^ In the following year he became Minister
of Suddie and Chancellor of Ross, the parish of Kimietas
being also in his charge during 1574. His stipend that year
was £173, 6s. 8d. Scots, out of which he had to pay two readers
20 merks each ; ^ in 1576, when he had Suddie alone, it was
£125, lis. Id. From 1590 to 1593 he was Minister of Tarbat,
his stipend being £200.^ He returned to Suddie in 1594,
but was translated to Rosemarkie in 1597, and two years
later to Chanonry, holding the latter benefice till his death
in 1630, and retaining Suddie till 1601.
Mr. George Monro was elected to the General Assembly
on many occasions between 1581 and 1610. In 1581 and
1582 he was appointed * by the General Assembly to serve
on a deputation for the erection of presbyteries in Ross,
Sutherland, and Caithness. In 1586 and 1591 he was ap-
pointed to be commissioner of the synod of Ross with a
general oversight of the chiirches within these limits, his
' fie ' being £100 per annum payable out of the emoluments
1 Scott's Fasti, iii. 274, 284.
* Wodrow Miscellany, i. 336 ; Register of Ministers (Maitland Club), p. 90.
3 Old Rosshire, W. Maogill, No. 45.
• Book of the Universall Kirk (Bannatyne Club), ii. 530, 531, 566, 699.
4 EARLY HISTORY
of the old bishopric of Ross.^ In 1588 he was appointed ^
commissioner to visit Orkney, ' where the Jesuits and Papists
chiefly resort, and therein to plant kirks with quaHfied mini-
sters, depose and deprive such as be unqualified, whether in
life or doctrine, as well bishops as others of the ministry ; to
crave of all men, as well of high estate as others, subscription
to the Confession of Faith, and participation of the Lord's
Supper ; to try, caU and conveen papists and apostates, and
proceed against them conform to the Acts of the Assembly ;
and finally to do all other things that are necessary for
reformation of the said bounds and reducing them to a good
order, estabUshment of the Evangel and good discipline of
the Kirk.'
In March 1589-90 he was appointed by the Privy Council
to be one of the special clerical commissioners in the shires
of Inverness and Cromarty to summon the lieges and take
their subscriptions to the Confession of Faith and to the
general band ' tuicheing the mantenance and defens of the
said trew religioun, his Majesteis persone and estate, and
withstanding of all foreyne preparationis and forceis tending
to the trouble thairofif.' ^
In 1596 the General Assembly ordered ^ him and two
colleagues to conduct another visitation of Orkney, Zetland,
Caithness and Sutherland, and in 1607 he was appointed ^
constant Moderator of the presbytery of Ardmeanoch or the
Black Isle.
As a prominent Presbyterian he had to encounter much
opposition in the early part of his career. On September
12, 1573 he complained to the Privy Council ^ that ' Rore,
broder to Colene M'Kainze of Kintale, havand continewall
residence in the steopill of the Chanonry of Ross, quhilk he
causit big not only to oppress the cuntrie with maisterfull
1 Old Rosshire, No. 44. ^ Book of the UniversaU Kirk, ii. 724.
3 P. C. B., iv. 466. * Book of the UniversaU Kirk, iii. 863.
s F. C. B., vii. 301. • P. C. B., ii. 276.
EARLY HISTORY 5
reif, soirning and daylie oppressioun, bot alsua for suppress-
ing of the Word of God, quhilk wes ay precheit in the said
Kirk preceding his intery thairto — quhilk now is becum ane
filthie sty and den of thevis — , hes maisterfuUy and violenthe,
with ane grite force of oppressouris, cum to the tenentis
addebtit in pament of the said Mr. George benefice foirsaid,
and hes maisterfuUy reft thame of all and haill the frutis
thairof, and sua he, having na uther refuge for obtening of
the said benefice, wes compeUit to denunce the saidis haill
tenentis rebeUis and put thame to the home, as the saidis
letters and executioun thairof mair fuUely proportis ; and
forder, is compeUit for feir of the said Mr, George life to remane
fra his vocatioun quhairunto God hes caUit him.'
Rore M'Kenzie, the respondent, failed to appear, so the
Regent Morton ' with avise of the Lordis of Secreit CounsaU '
ordered him to be put to the horn as a rebel and his goods
to be escheated.
This was by no means the end of Mr. George Monro's
troubles, for in August 1575 he had to answer before the
General Assembly to the charge ^ that ' he waites not on his
cure,' and pled in defence that ' he might not traveU at his
kirk for deadly feed.' The excuse was accepted.
In 1586 he was again given the protection of the Privy
CouncU,^ who bo\md over certain persons not to molest him.
In 1602 he was the victim of another attack, and on
Jidy 8 of that year lodged a complaint before the Privy
C!ouncU ^ that on April 26 nine persons came to his house
in the Chanonry ' by way of hamesucken,' and (1) 'be oppin
force and violence, with certane instrumentis and ingynis
brocht with thame for the purpois, thay brak up the dvirris
of his said hous, enterit within the same, tuik the said com-
plenar, and Mr. George Monro his sone, furth of thair bedis
sark allane [with their shirts alone], dang thame with thair
1 Book of the Universall Kirk, i. 336, 342.
2 P. C. R., iv. 68, 69. ^ P. C. B., vi. 411.
6 EARLY HISTORY
neiffis [fists] and hiltis of thair suordis in dyvers pairt of thair
bodyis ' ; (2) they took Margaret Levingstoun, the complainer's
spouse, ' out of hir naked bed, reif hir sark, and schamefullie
and unmercifuUie, but [without] pitie or compassioun, straik
and dang hir in dyvers pairtis of hir body, schot hir out of
the hous into the close, quhair thay held hir sark allane quhill
scho wes almast deid throw cauld and be the straikis and
woundis quhilkis scho ressavit of thame ' ; (3) they spuilzied
[spoiled] the complainer's house of most of its plenishing.
The respondents were all put under caution not to molest
the complainer.
As mentioned in the above complaint, Mr. George Monro
had married Margaret Livingstone. He Uved till about 1630.
His son Geobge also went into the Church, and was ap-
pointed by James vi. in 1586 to be Chaplain of Clynie ' for
his support at sustenying him at the schidis.' ^ He became
minister of Suddie in 1614, and about the same time also
succeeded to his father's appointment as Chancellor of Ross.^
He was nominated a member of the Court of High Commis-
sion in 1634,3 and a Justice of the Peace for Inverness. He
was the only minister in the presbytery of Chanonry to sign
the National League and Covenant of 1638.'*
He married Mary Primrose, and died about 1642, leaving
three sons, George, David and Alexander (afterwards Sir
Alexander of Bearcrofts). His widow died at a house on the
Castle Hill, Edinburgh, in March 1670, and was buried in
Greyfriars Churchyard.
George, the eldest son, Uke his father and grandfather,
became a minister, and succeeded to their office as Chancellor
1 Scott's Fasti, iii. 274, 285.
2 Laiiig Charters, 1779.
3 Baillie's LeHers (Bannatyne Cluh), i. 426.
* Rothes's Relation (Bannatyne Club), p. 106.
EARLY HISTORY 7
of Ross. His cure of souls was at Rosemarkie. He acquired
the property of Pitlundie, at Kilmuir Easter or Kjiockbain
on the Moray Firth, by purchase from Roderick M'Kenzie
of Kilmuir, and obtained on July 7, 1676 a charter ^ in favour
of himself and his wife Barbara Forbes. They had several
daughters and a son John, a writer in Edinburgh, who appears
to have died without issue, having sold Pitlundie in 1686 to
Hugh Baillie, Sheriff Clerk of Ross-shire. ^
David, the second son, was reported to the General
Assembly by the presbytery of Dingwall ^ in March 1651
for his ' maUgnancy ' in supporting the ' Engagement ' of
1647, the secret treaty entered into at Carisbrook Castle
between Charles i. and the Scots commissioners, whereby
the King undertook, as the price of the support of Scots
arms, to estabHsh Presbyterianism in England for three
years and to suppress the Independents and all other sectaries.
The General Assembly heard David Monro's petition * express-
ing regret for his conduct and ' desyring to be receaved to
publict satisfaction for the same,' and his case was referred
to the presbytery of Auchterarder, who appointed him to
make satisfaction and sign the Solemn League and Covenant
at the kirk of Inchaflfray, where presumably he was hving.
This procediu-e had Uttle effect on him, for in the autumn of
the same year he again took up arms on the Royahst side,
and fought at the battle of Worcester, where he was killed.
I R. M. 8., vol. 65, No. 70.
^ Inquisitiones, Ross and Cromarty, 98, 145 ; Old Rosshire, No. 900.
* Presbytery Records of Inverness and Dingwall (Soot. Hist. Soc), p. 208.
* Records of the Commission of the General Assembly (Soot. Hist. Soc), iii. 313, 411.
MONRO PEDIGREE
Sir ALEXANDER MONRO of Bearcrofts, b. 1629, d. Jan. 4, 1704,
m. Lillias, daughter of John Eastoun of Couston.
Colonel George, b. before 1666, d.
circa 1721, m. Margaret Bruce of
Auchinbowie.
Archibald,
X Sep. 1666,
John, surgeon in Edinburgh, b. Oct. 1670, d. 1740, m. (1) Jean,
daughter of Captain James Forbes; (2) Aug. 1721, I
Margaret Crichton, widow of William Main. She d. s.p.
Alexander of Auchinbowie,
d. Oct. 12, 1742, m. 1719
Anne, daughter of Sir Robert
Stewart (Lord Tillicultry).
She d. Sep. 27, 1763.
George of Auchinbowie, which
he sold to his cousiu Alex-
ander (Primus), army sur-
geon, b. 1721, d. Feb. 24,
1793, m. Jane M'Comish,
widow of Law Robertson.
She d. Dec. 28, 1802.
L
Margaret, Alexander {Primus) of Auchinbowie, which he bought from his
b. March 1707. cousin George, b. 8 Sep. 1697, d. July 10, 1767. Professor
of Anatomy iu Edinburgh, m. Jan. 3, 1725, Isabella, third
daughter of Sir Donald Macdouald of Sleat, Bart. She d.
Dec. 10, 1774, aged 80. I
I 6
Alexander,
writer in
Edinburgh,
b. Aug. 1724,
d. Feb. 15,
1750.
Cecil,
b. Dec. 16,
1719,
d. unm.
Jan. 15, 1786.
1
Major George,
m. Elizabeth Aylmer,
issue two sons
and one daughter.
Lieut. -General Hector
William, m. Jan. 20,
1796, Philadelphia
Bower of Edmonds-
ham, issue three sons
and four daughters.
d. Jan. 3, 1821.
Robert, b. July 1722.
Margaret, b. Aug. 1723.
Grissell, b. Jan. 1726.
Marion, b. April 1727.
Heugh, b. Aug. 1729.
All d. young.
John of Auchinbowie, advocate,
b. Nov. 5, 1725, d. May 24,
1789, m. July 8, 1757, Sophia,
eldest daughter of Archibald
Inglis of Auchindinny. She
was b. Feb. 17, 1741, d. April
21. 1775. I
Jane, of Auchin-
bowie, d. Dec. 26,
1835, m. Nov. 21,
1785, George Home
of Argaty, who
d. Oct. 5, 1787.
Isabella, of Auchin-
bowie, d. Aug. 31,
1814, m. Feb. 23,
1789, Captain
N inian Lowis, R. N. ,
of Plean, three sons
and four daughters.
Sophia, of Argaty,
b. Aug, 5, 1787,
d. May 29, 1806,
m.Aug. 9, 1803,
her cousin David
Monro Binning,
ofSoftlaw, g.D.
Alexander,
b. July 5, 1803,
d. Jan. 22, 1867,
m, Elizabeth,
daughter of
C. B. Scott
ofWoll. She
d. a.p. July 19,
1879.
James,
b. Sep. 15, 1806,
i. Nov. 3, 1870,
m. Maria,
daughter of
Col. Duffin,
two sons and
one daughter.
Henry, Sir David,
Aug. 24, 1810, b. March 27, 1813,
I. Nov. 1869, d. Feb. 15, 1877,
845 Dinah,
m. (1)
Jane Christie,
one daughter ;
(2) Catherine
Power, four
sons and three
daughters.
daughter of
John Seeker,
five sons and
two daughters.
George Home Monro Binning Home of Argaty
and Softlaw, b. May 28, 1804, d. Jan. 10,
1884, m. Feb. 20, 1839, Catherine, daughter
of Lieut. -Colonel Joseph Burnett of Gadgirth.
She d. Aug. 14, 1895. Their six children
d. young.
William,
Major, Cameron
Highlanders,
b. Feb. 24, 1815,
d. March 2, 1881,
m. 1843,
Elizabeth,
daughter of
Sir Robert Aber-
cromby, Bart. ,
three daughters.
Alexander Binning Monro, W.S., of Auchin-
bowie and Softlaw, b. M.ay 22, 1806 d
Dec. 12, 1891, m. Aug. 4, 1835, his cousin,
Harriet, daughter of Dr. Alex. Monro
(Tertius), q.v., issue four sons and two
daughters.
Charles.
). April 3(
1818,
MONRO PEDIGREE
Margaret,
b. May 1664,
d. in infancy.
Jean, m. 1710 William, second
son of Sir William Sempil of
Cathcart, d. s.p. April 1725.
Mary.
Mays
Dr. Donald,
Jean,
Mary. Alexander (Secundus) of Craiglockhart and Cockburn,
Margaret,
b. Jan. 15, 1728,
b. June 3, 1729, b. June 2(5. b. May 20, 1733, d. Oct. 2, 1817. Professor of
m. Nov. 24, 1757,
d. June 9, 1802,
d. May 1, 1731.
1730, Anatonay in Edinburgh, m. Sep. 25, 1762, Katha-
James Philp
m. Aug. 29, 1772,
Dorothea Maria
d.
in infancy. rine, daughter of David Inglis, Treasurer of the
of Greenlaw.
Bank of Scotland. She was b. Jan. 21, 1741, d.
She d. s.p.
April 30, 1802.
May 11, 1803.
Isabella Margaret,
d. June 28, 1814,
Isabella,
Alexander {Tertius), of Craiglockhart David, assumed sur-
Charlotte,
d. Sep. 27, 1801,
and Cockburn, b. Nov. 5, 1773, d. name of Binning on
b. March 17, 1782,
m. Col. John
m. March 13, 1787,
March 10, 1859, Professor of Ana- acquiring Softlaw, b.
d. April 26, 1822,
Scott, H.E.I.C.S.,
Lieut. -Col. Hugh
tomy in Edinburgh, m. (1) Sept. 20, Feb. 16, 1776, d. Jan. 24,
1800, Maria Agnes Carmichael-Smyth, 1843, m. (1) Aug. 9,
m. Nov. 10, 1808,
issue three
Scott of Gala, who
Louis Henry Ferrier
daughters.
d. Oct. 4, 1795,
who d. July 6, 1833 ; (2) July 15, 1803, his cousin, Sophia
of Belsyde, advo-
issue one son.
1836, Janet Hunter, who d. s.p. Home of Argaty. g.i). ;
Aug. 4, 1886. (2) July 2, 1813, Isa-
cate, issue five sons
and three
bella, daughter of
daughters.
Lord President Blair.
c
She d. May 22, 1879.
1 1
Maria,
b. Nov. 22,
1801, d. Nov. 6,
1884, m. Feb. 5,
1828, John
Inglis of
Auchindinny
and Redhall,
two sons and
three
daughters.
Catherine,
). Nov. 4, 1804,
I. s.p. April 18,
m. June 1,
1835, Sir
John James
Steuart of
AUanbank,
Bart.
d. June 4,
1868,
m. 1831.
George Skene
of Rubislaw,
one son and
daughters.
Harriet,
b. Aug. 2,
1816,
d. March 7,
1898, m. her
cousin Alex.
Isabella, Charlotte,
b. Nov. 3, b. Feb. 14, 1821,
1819,
d. unm.
Oct. 12,
1903.
April 3,
1908, m. 1851
Bev. Henry
M. Fletcher,
three sons and
two daughters.
Robert Blair,
H.E.I.C.S.,
b. May 5, 1814,
d. Sep. 11, 1891,
m. Oct. 14, 1858,
lis cousin Kathrine.
daughter of Louis
Henry Ferrier of
Belsyde. She d.
May 24, 1882.
Isabella
Cornelia.
CHAPTER II
SIR ALEXANDER MONRO OF BEARCROFTS
Alexander Monro, third son of Mr. George Monro and Mary
Primrose, the ancestor of the Auchinbowie family, was bom
in 1629, and with his brother David fought for Charles n.
against CromweU at the battle of Worcester (September 3,
1651).! After seeing some further service he retired with
the rank of Major, and took to the study of the law.
On December 21, 1657 he bought a small property in
Stirlingshire called Bearcrofts : ^ the seller was Duncan
Ker, merchant in Falkirk, but the purchase price is not
mentioned.
Bearcrofts lies in the parish of Grangemouth, formerly
Falkirk, on the flat shore of the Forth to the west of the
mouth of the Avon, and a mUe and a half east of Grange-
mouth town. There was a mansion-house on the estate,
which also included the lands of Hawatflat and Southlands
and the right of salmon-fishing in the Avon water. As
part of the barony of Kerse, it had before the Reformation
belonged to the Abbey of Holyrood,^ and had been feued
to a family called Crawfurd. On the suppression of the
monasteries the lands of the Abbey were bestowed for a
substantial money consideration on Sir Ludovic BeUenden,
and were incorporated into the barony of Broughton.* In
^ Collected Works of Alexander Monro {Primus) — Memoir by Dr. Donald Monro.
2 P.B. S. StirKng— May 8, 1660.
' Charters of Holyrood (Bannatyne Club), 154-56.
« E. M. S., 1580-93, No. 1304.
SIR ALEXANDER MONRO 11
1606, on the resignation of Sir James Bellenden, Bearcrofts
and other lands in the neighbourhood were erected into
the barony of Falkirk in favour of Alexander, first Earl of
Linlithgow.^
Charles i. on his accession procured an Act revoking the
grants of Chiirch lands, and the possessions of Holyrood-
house were then annexed to the bishopric of Edinburgh. In
1637 James Lord Livingstone, afterwards Earl of Callendar,
who had bought the barony of Falkirk from his brother
Alexander, second Earl of Linhthgow, obtained a Crown
charter ratifying a charter by the Bishop of Edinburgh of
whom he was to hold the lands. ^ Six years later he obtained
another Crown charter from which the Bishop's name had
disappeared. When Alexander Monro bought Bearcrofts a
right of midsuperiority was vested in a branch of the
Hamilton family, and this right he acquired in 1665 from
John Hamilton, eldest son of Sir James Hamilton of Grange,
who had served heir to his uncle. Sir John Hamilton of Bear-
crofts.^ Two years previously Monro had bought the
superiority from Lord CaUendar, and on February 9, 1666
he got a Crown charter in favoiu" of himseK and LiUias
Eastoun his wife in liferent, and George their eldest son in
fee.* The lands were to be held of the Crown for an armual
payment of 10 merks.
A short digression is here necessary in order to trace
Mrs. Monro's ancestry.
She was the second of the three daughters of John Eastoun
of Couston ^ near Bathgate. The Eastoun or Eistoun family
had been settled in West Lothian for about a century. In
1572 a certain John Eastoun obtained from Lord Torphichen
1 B. M. S., 1593-1608, No. 1792. 2 IK, 1634-51, Nos. 778, 1454.
' Inquisitiones — Stirling, 240. * R. M. S.
' Inquisitiones — Linlithgow, 212 ; Edinburgh Testaments, James Eastoun, June 25,
12 THE EASTOUNS OF COUSTON
a feu of the lands of Scottinflat, afterwards called Broom-
park, in Torphichen parish, and in 1594 an Alexander Eastoun
obtained a further feu of the neighbouring lands of Wood-
syde.i Early in the seventeenth century their respective
successors sold both feus to John Eastoun, W.S., Mrs.
Monro's great-grandfather, who also in 1610 bought the
property of Couston from Sir Thomas Hamilton of Binning,
King's Advocate. Sir Thomas had acquired it two years
before from the Polwarths, who had possessed it for several
generations. 2 Like Scottinflat and Woodsyde, Couston
was held in feu of Lord Torphichen.
John Eastoun, who had practised in Edinburgh as a
Writer to the Signet since about 1601, died on January 25,
1616, survived by his wife Margaret Cant, who seems to have
been of the family of Grange of St. Giles — her husband at
any rate refers in his testament ^ to John Cant, the laird, as
his especial friend. He left legacies of 3000 merks to his
grandson, James Eastoun, 100 merks to his sister Margaret
and her bairns, 200 merks to his wife's niece, Jean Cant,
daughter of Archibald Cant in Calsie, and 100 merks to the
building of the kirk at Edinburgh.
John Eastoun and Margaret Cant had an only son,
John n., who was kidnapped as a boy. His father com-
plained to the Privy Council in 1612 * that on June 21
Cristeane Levingstoun, Lady Boghall, rehct of Andro Ker
of Mylnerig, and her sister Elizabeth Levingstoun, goodwife
of Kinnaird, with their accomplices ' crafteUe tranit ' young
John ' furth of the burgh of Edinburgh to the porte thairof ,
qtihair, haveing some horssis prepairit of piirpois, thay
violentlie set him upoun horsbak, and perforce caryit him
away with thame to the place of , quhair thay
1 Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries, 1906-7, pp. 338-70.
- Laing Charters, No. 445.
^ Edinburgh Testaments, June 9, 1616.
« P. C. R., ix. 396.
THE EASTOUNS OF COUSTON 13
yit keip and detene him in prison and captivitie, he being a
young boy remaning in his said fatheris company undir his
charge and educatioun. Lyke as the saidis personis intendis
to compell the said Johnne Eistoun younger to undirtak
some suche imlauchfull cours and interpryse as may procure
not onhe his awne wraik, bot also his said fatheris havie
displeasom-, and thairwith myndis to urge and force the said
Johnne Eistoun, younger, to subscryve and deliver unto
thame all suche bandis and utheris writtis as out of thair
fohe thay pleis prescryve, set doun, and present unto him.'
The two ladies failed to answer the summons or to produce
the boy, so they were denounced as rebels.
It may be that these proceedings were a violent way of
negotiating a marriage between young John Eastoun and
Euphemia Ker, whom in fact he married about this time.
They had two sons, John ili., Mrs. Monro's father, and James,
who became an advocate. John n. succeeded to the
properties on his father's death in 1616, and died in
September 1625. Euphemia Ker, who survived him for
over forty years, married Henry Livingstone of Gardoch,
in Bothkennar parish, Stirlingshire, and had a son George.^
John in. of Couston married (contract dated March 2,
1633) ^ Jean, eldest daughter of Michael Elphinstone of
Quarrel (now Carron Hall), Stirlingshire, ninth son of
Alexander, fourth Lord Elphinstone.^ They had three
daughters, Mary, LiUias (Mrs. Monro) and Euphemia.
John Eastoun soon got into financial difficulties, and
sold Couston to his brother James. He also borrowed at
various times from his brother on the security of Broompark
and Woodsyde, but their mother continued to enjoy the
liferent of these properties tiU her death in 1667.
Mr. James Eastoun of Couston, advocate, married in 1640
1 Stirling Testaments, January 1, 1668-69.
^ Proceedings of Society of ArUiquaries, 1906-7, p. 365.
' Scots Peerage, iii. 539.
14 THE EASTOUNS OF COUSTON
Margaret, daughter of Peter Somervell, merchant burgess
of Edinburgh, '^ and died without issue in 1651. His widow
married Gabriel Rankene, merchant burgess of Edinburgh.
He left a will made on June 25, 1651, at the camp at
Torwoodhead, StirUngshire, where the Scots forces vuider the
personal command of Charles ii. entrenched themselves in
readiness for Cromwell.^ He begins with the preamble that
' thair is nothing mair certain nor death and that it is mair
imminent to nobody nor sojoris . . . and first I declair my-
self clear in all the poynts of the Covenant.' He leaves his
three nieces his heirs portioners, 'onlie to the eldest lass I
leive the lands of Coustoune ; I wishe her to marie with the
young laird of Bathgaitt ; with the provisiones following, that
my mother have out of the lands of Coustoun so long as she
lives 300 merks zeirlie, and to my wife 500 merks zeirhe
dureing her lifetime.' He appointed his half-brother, George
Livingstone of Gardoch, to be his executor.
The match between Mary Eastoun and Thomas Hamilton
of Bathgate never took place, but she married William
Sandilands, third son of John, fourth Lord Torphichen.^
Their second son, William, entailed Couston in 1704.
Lillias married Alexander Monro of Bearcrofts, and
Euphemia, the third sister, married Alexander Nairn of
Easter Greenyards near Bannockburn, brother of Robert,
created Lord Nairn.* She died in May 1686, leaving at
least two sons, Alexander and Robert. By her will ^ she
nominated her brother-in-law Alexander Monro to be one of
Robert's tutors, and his son George Monro was one of the
witnesses.
To return to Alexander Monro — he was appointed on
1 B. M. S., 1634-51, No. 1687 ; Edinburgh Marriage Register.
2 Edinburgh Testaments, June 25, 1652.
3 Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries, 1906-7, p. 374.
♦ Scots Peerage, vi. 393. » Stirling Testaments, August 11, 1704.
SIR ALEXANDER MONRO 15
August 8, 1660 to be Commissary of Stirlingshire, and on
February 26, 1662 he was admitted an advocate. The local
commissary coiirts, of which there were twenty-three through-
out Scotland, represented the old ecclesiastical courts, and
had jurisdiction in questions of marriage, divorce, affiliation
and testaments. The emoluments were under £100 a year,
but the office did not prevent its holder from practising at
the bar, nor from accepting other appointments.
He was appointed in 1661, 1667 and 1668 a Commissioner
of Supply, and in 1663 a Justice of the Peace for Stirling-
shire ; ^ and in 1668 he was made a burgess of the Royal
Burgh of Tain.
On June 21, 1666 the Privy Council^ added his name to
a commission of landed gentry who had been appointed
eighteen months before to try a certain Barbara Drummond
on the charge of witchcraft. The duty may well have been
distasteful — at any rate no trial had taken place, and in
spite of appeals to the Council the wretched woman had
been kept for two years in prison at Stirling.
The addition of Alexander Monro to the commission had
no effect whatever, and on January 31, 1667 the accused
woman made another appeal for liberty, complaining that her
accusers had never yet come forward to estabhsh their case,
and at length in May of that year, after three years' imprison-
ment, she was set at liberty.
On January 20, 1669 Monro was appointed ^ by his kins-
man. Sir Archibald Primrose, Lord Clerk Register, to be
Clerk to the Commission for Plantation of Kirks and Valua-
tions of Teinds, of which he was in later years a member ;
but he was not persona grata to the President, Sir James
Dalrymple, for Fountainhall says : * ' It was the President's
1 Thomson's Ads, vii. 93, 506, 544.
2 P. C. R., 3rd Series, ii. 56, 172, 252, 283.
3 Connell on Tithes, 1830, ii. 180.
* Fountainhall, Historical Notices (Bannat3aie Club), i. 136.
16 SIR ALEXANDER MONRO
cue to f ugillat ^ the Bischops, and to cut Commissar Monro
its clerk short of all the benefit he could.'
In November 1669 Monro was also nominated one of the
Clerks of Session in succession to Laiirence Scott of Bavelaw,
and held the post till June 26, 1676, when Government reduced
the number of clerkships from six to three. The Lords of
Session selected three to continue in office on the footing
that they should give the other three, of whom Monro was
one, compensation of 3500 merks each. ' Comissar Monro
refused, unles they gave him a reason of their depriving
him, which was refused till he raised his declarator if he had
a mind to doe it. He within a 4*night after accepted it.' ^
In Foulis of Ravelston's Diary ^ there are frequent entries
of convivial meetings with Commissary Monro, but his fortunes
underwent a disastrous change during the persecution that
foUowed the battle of Bothwell Bridge (1679), ' the kiUing
times ' of ' bluidy Mackenzie.' For prominent Presbyterians
neither liberty nor property was safe, and the crisis was
reached in 1682, when one Weir or Lawrie of Blackwood was
condemned on a charge of treason, for having been in the
company of a person who had been concerned in the affair
of Bothwell Bridge but had never been prosecuted by
Government.
A scheme was then suggested by the Earl of Shaftesbiu-y
for sending a Scots colony to the Carolinas, and in the autumn
of 1682 he invited Sir John Cochrane of Ochiltree, second son
of the Earl of Dundonald, and Sir George Campbell younger
of Cessnock to come up to London and discuss the matter.
They did so, and obtained the leave of the King and Coimcil
to form a company with this object.*
Shaftesbury, however, had another motive in seeking to
1 Query, ' fugitate,' i.e. get rid of.
2 Journals of Sir John Lauder, Lord Fmintainhall (Scot. Hist. See.), p. 225.
» Scottish History Society.
* Wodrow, History, Book m. chap. vi. § 1, vol. ii. p. 230.
SIR ALEXANDER MONRO 17
get into association with them. He was planning a great
Whig plot for a general rising throughout England to over-
throw the King and his government, and to exclude the
Duke of York, a Catholic,* from succession to the throne.
He secured many supporters, said to number 20,000, and
the CaroUna scheme suggested itself as a means whereby
the movement might be carried into Scotland, if the Earl
of Argyll could be induced to return from Holland and lead
an invasion. The rising in England was originally fixed for
November 19, but had to be abandoned for lack of prepara-
tion, and Shaftesbury then retired to Holland, where he died
soon afterwards.
The inner working of the plot, which remained undis-
covered, was entrusted to a Council of Six — the Duke of
Monmouth, the Earl of Essex, Lord Russell, Lord Howard
of Escrick, Colonel Algernon Sydney, and John Hampden —
and they sent a certain Aaron Smith to Scotland early in
1683, to invite some of the prominent Presbyterians to come
up to London and confer with them under cover of the
Carolina enterprise. He was specially to see Lord Melville,
Sir John Cochrane, Robert BaiUie of Jerviswood, Sir George
Campbell, and his father Sir Hew Campbell of Cessnock.
About this time Cochrane, Baillie, and Alexander Monro
obtained commissions from the Carolina company to go to
London and arrange for a purchase of land. Monro left
Edinburgh in April, and joined the other two on the way.
He stoutly maintained that he never met Aaron Smith until
he saw him at Cochrane's house in Yorkshire, and that the
object of his journey was the Carolina business and nothing
else. Thomas Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, who wrote the
official accoimt of the conspiracy, rejects that plea and says : ^
' Commissary Monroe had well serv'd his Majesty in the
Wars as an active brave man ; but upon some Injuries he
pretended to have receiv'd from the Duke of Lauderdail,
1 True Account of the Horrid Conspiracy, 1685, p. 27.
C
18 SIR ALEXANDER MONRO
he grew enrag'd to such a degree, as led him into these
Courses.'
On arriving in London they lodged in Blackfriars, and
paid court to His Majesty at Windsor as part of their Carohna
negotiations. They found that Lord Melville had already
arrived, and they were joined by the Cessnocks, David
Montgomery of Langshaw and several others. They had
meetings with the Duke of Monmouth, Lord Russell and
Robert Ferguson, ' The Plotter ' ; and Wilham Carstares,
afterwards Principal of Edinburgh University, arrived from
Holland with a message from Argyll that he would land in
Scotland on condition that the English conspirators woidd
send him £30,000 to buy arms and ammunition and would
raise 1000 dragoons. The Scots found it impossible to get
this large sum raised, but they got promises that £10,000
would be found, and Argyll agreed to act provided that the
rising in the two countries could be arranged to take place
simultaneously.
' Commissarie Monro, Lord MelviU and the Cessnocks
were against medhng with the Inglish, becaus they judged
them men that wold talk and wold not doe, but wer mor
inclyned to doe something by themselves if it could be done.' ^
The promised £10,000 dwindled to £5000, and negotia-
tions reached a deadlock, because the Englishmen aimed
at setting up a Commonwealth, to which the Scots would
not agree.
At a meeting at Jerviswood's lodgings, at which Monro
was present, it was resolved to send to Scotland Mr. Robert
Martin, late Clerk of Justiciary, to hinder the country from
rising till they saw how matters went in England. Martin
arrived at the end of May, and had interviews with Sir
Patrick Hume of Polwarth, Pringle of Torwoodlee, and
Lord Tarras, who sent back word ' that it would not be so
easy a matter to get the gentry of Scotland to concur ' {i.e.
1 Howell, State Trials, x. 698.
SIR ALEXANDER MONRO 19
in delay) ; and Hume wrote to Monro, with whom he was
in regular correspondence, ' that the Country was readier
than they imagined.'
According to Lord Tarras ' Martin said that all the Scots-
men at London would come down soe soon as things were
concluded their, nameing Sir John Cochrane, Jerviswood
and Commissar Monro, to act or doe hier conform to the
resolutions their.'
In the subsequent proceedings Monro maintained that
he and his friends, perceiving that the oppressive conduct
of the Government would cause a rising, sent Martin to
prevent this and to get information as to the state of the
covmtry. The Government, however, obtained evidence that
more than this was intended, and that a definite plan for an
insurrection had been arranged.
FoimtainhaU's account of the plot is as foUows : ^
' Ther designe seims to have been, to joyne with the
Enghsh when they ware ripe to draw to a body, and, with
armes in the one hand, and a petition in the other, to compeU
the King to quite his Brother to the mercy of a tryall in
Parhament, and to receave them to be his counsellers ;
and ambition had so blinded ther eyes, that they had pro-
mised succes to themselves, and ware dividing the ofl&ces
of State among them, and talked of seizing Berwick, and
Stirling Castle, and of surprizing the Chancelor, Treasurer,
and the dragouns' horses wher they ware graizing ; and to
try whare ther ware any armes to be got; and to let the
project fall to ther confident freinds, to try ther inchnations,
and to keep up ther cesse for a tyme ; and to know the
strenth of ther party by a word viz. : " Harmony," and a
signe, viz. : the lousing a button of ther breast and then
closing it again.'
According to the official account Sir Patrick Hume,
George Pringle of Torwoodlee, the Earl of Tarras and Murray
' Historical Notices (Bannatyne Club), ii. 591.
20 SIR ALEXANDER MONRO
of Philiphaugh were to organise matters in Scotland ; while
the leaders in Holland were, in addition to Argyll himself,
the Earl of Loudoun, Sir James Dalrymple (Lord Stair),
James Steuart, afterwards Lord Advocate, and Andrew
Fletcher of Saltoun.
Alongside of this project of insurrection was another
plot, also originated by Lord Shaftesbury, to assassinate
the King and the Duke of York. It was confined to about
forty of the conspirators, including none of the Scotsmen
except Ferguson ' the Plotter,' who after Shaftesbury's
departure was the leading spirit of the whole movement.
Various schemes had been considered, but the one which
came nearest to realisation was a plan to attack the royal
party at the Rye House in Hertfordshire on their way back
from Newmarket. It was twice arranged, in October 1682
and in March 1683, but in each case it miscarried owing to
a change in the King's plans.
Other proposals were under discussion, when on June
12, 1683 information as to both plots was given to the govern-
ment by one of the conspirators, Josiah Keehng. It was a
couple of days before the authorities took action, and some
of the Scotsmen had timely warning and fled to Holland,
but Monro made no attempt to abscond ; ^ the Campbells
were caught trying to escape, Carstares was taken a month
later in hiding at Tenterden in Kent, and eventually about
a dozen of the Scotsmen and many of the Englishmen were
secured. They were examined before the King in Privy
Council at Hampton Court, and for the most part were kept
in prison.
Monro appeared for examination on June 23. He had
been iU most of the time he was in London, ^ and he was able
to give a satisfactory accomit of himself and was released ;
but fom* days later Thomas Shephard, a wine-merchant, at
1 Howell, Stale Trials, ix. 853.
■■' Foxcroft, Supplement to BurneCs Uislory, pp. 113, 118.
SIR ALEXANDER MONRO 21
whose house some of the meetings took place, gave evidence ^
that he had talked with Monro about the £10,000 promised
by the English conspirators, and that Monro had complained
that it was too little, and that the delay in paying it would
ruin them aU. He was re-arrested on the 28th, and after
four months' confinement in the Marshalsea,^ he and the
other Scots prisoners were sent to Scotland for trial, as it
was doubtful whether the sentence of an English court would
be sufficient warrant for confiscation of their heritage.
The English ringleaders were tried and about haK a dozen
were executed.
FountainhaU records : ^ 'On the 1 of November [1683]
the Scots prisoners, to the number of 12 or 13, ware em-
barqued on the Kitchen yacht and sent to Scotland ; wher,
after much tempest and tossing, they arrived on the 14 :
ther names ware. Sir [Hew] Campbell of Cesnock and his
sone, Muir of Rowallan and his sone, and Fairly of Brunts-
feild his son-in-law, Bailzie of Jerreswood, [Crawfurd] of
Crawfurdland, Alexander Munro of Bearcrofts, Murray of
Tippermuir, Mr. William Spence, late servant to Argile, Mr.
[William] Carstairs and [John] Hepburn, ministers.'
Erskine of Carnock wrote in his Journal : * ' Nov. 1683,
lUh. — This day the Scots gentlemen who were prisoners in
London, some of them being apprehended on suspicion of
their having a hand in the late plot, landed at Leith. They
were guarded with a squad of the King's Guards, and the
greatest part of the town's company, and were carried to the
Nether Bow port in coaches, and from that walked on foot
to the Tolbooth, being divided among the ranks of the Foot,
and the horse going before. They were kept close prisoners
and divided in several rooms.'
They were imprisoned in the Tolbooth all winter, and in
1 True and Plain Account of the Discoveries in Scotland, Adv. Lib. Pamphlets, 257.
- Soniers Tracts, viii. 406.
3 Historical Observes, p. 108. * Scottish History Society, p. 21.
22 SIR ALEXANDER MONRO
March Sir Hew Campbell of Cessnock was tried for complicity
in the Bothwell Bridge rising ; though the witnesses failed
to identify him, and the jury acquitted him, he was still
kept in prison for his share in the great plot.
The government then decided to indict Robert BaUhe
of Jerviswood, who, though an old man in feeble health,
had been very active in the conspiracy ; and also to raise
processes of forfeiture against the other prominent Scotsmen
implicated in it. In order to procure the necessary evidence
the Council gave orders for Spence and Carstares to be
examined under torture.
On July 20, 1684 Spence was put in the boots in order
to induce him to reveal what he knew of the conspiracy,
and especially to disclose the cjrpher-key to Argyll's corre-
spondence. The torture of the boots was not sufficient to
wring the information from him, so ' by a hair-shirt and
pricking he was 5 nights keeped from sleip, till he was turned
halfe distracted.' ^ On August 7 ' Spence is again tortured,
and his thumbs crushed with piUiwincks or thumbikins :
After this, when they ware about to have cawed him of new
again in the boots, he being frighted, desired tyme, and he
would declare what he knew ' ; on the 22nd to avoid further
torture he revealed the clue to the letters.
Carstares' s turn came a few days later. On September 5
he suffered the thumbikins for an hoiu- and a half without
confessing anything, so the Council ordered him to be tortured
in the boots the following morning.^ This was more than
he could endure, so he consented to give evidence. In
after-years Carstares became chief Presbyterian adviser to
William ni. and Principal of Edinburgh University, and the
thumbikins, which were never again used, were presented to
him as a memento of his sufferings.
As the result of Carstares's evidence the Earl of Tarras
I Fountainhall, Historical Notices, ii. 545, 548, 552.
' Wodrow, Sufferings, Book m. chap. viii. § 4, vol. ii. p. 391.
SIR ALEXANDER MONRO 23
and Murray of Philiphaugh were apprehended.^ Tarras
confessed his share in the plot, and threw himseK on the royal
mercy. Murray and Commissary Monro were examined before
the Council on September 11, ' and standing on ther denyall,
they are threatned with the boots ; which makes them
ingenuous, and confesse ther accession. This did so dis-
compose and confound Alexander Monro, to discover others,
that he desperately offered money to the keiper of the Tol-
buith's man to run him throw with his sword ; and roared,
that he knew he behooved to doe some base thing before
he dyed ; and regraited that he should have denied it before
the King, by lying so obstinatly, and should have been in-
strumental! in drawing so many gentlemen upon that which
would stand them both ther Uves and fortunes, and he be-
hooved to be a drudge and witnesse against them.' ^
A month later it was reported ' the Council begins to think
that Mr. Monro has put a trick on them in telling more than
is true, so to invaUdate his own evidence, his design being
only to escape torture.' ^ The previous quotation seems to
disprove the suggestion of a ' trick ' on his part, and in any
event it was of no avail to save his friends.
His depositions were signed by him on oath before the
Privy Council, and two days later the Council gave him
liberty to see his wife, children and friends in his cell, but not
to communicate with the other prisoners.*
In April they had petitioned ^ ' in regaird restraint of them
all in one roume during the heat of summer might be very
noxious and prejudicial! to ther health that therfor the
Secret Counsel! would ather be pleased to inlarge ther prisons,
or put them in severall prisons, up and doune the country,
wher they may have more free air.'
' Fountainliall, Historical Observes, p. 138. ^ Historical Notices, ii. 556.
' Historical MSS. Commission, Seventh Report, p. 378.
* P. C. R. Decreets, September 13, 1684 ; Spirit of Calumny Examined, p. 66, Adv.
Lib. Pamphlets, vol. 66. ^ Fountainhall, Historical Notices, ii. 531.
24 SIR ALEXANDER MONRO
It appears from the warrant of September 13 that they
had been kept in sohtary confinement through the summer,
and it was not till they had given their evidence, after ten
months' detention in the Tolbooth, that they were sent ^ to
various prisons, Monro being confined in StirUng Castle. A
fortnight later remissions were sent to them, and they were
set at liberty.^
The trial of Baillie of Jerviswood for treason took place
in the High Com't of Justiciary on December 23, 1684, and
ended in the small hours of the next morning in a verdict of
' guilty.' He was hanged at the Market Cross the same
afternoon, and his body was quartered. Wodrow explains
that the reason for this haste was that the authorities feared
he might die if they delayed the execution ; ^ as Fountain-
hall says : ^ ' the holy dayes of ZuiUe approaching, they
would not delay him till thay were ended.' His property
was forfeited.
The witnesses for the prosecution were Lord Tarras,
Commissary Monro, James Murray of Philiphaugh, Hugh
Scot of Galashiels and William Carstares. Monro's evidence
was rewarded with a free pardon, signed by the King at White-
haU on December 29, 1684.5
In January 1685 twenty- two persons were summoned
before Parliament on a charge of treason in connection with
the plot. Almost all except the two Cessnocks were fugitives,
but the trials of most of them took place at various times
throughout the year and decrees of forfeiture were obtained
in all cases. Monro was a witness, either in person or through
his deposition,^ against Lord Melville, Sir John Cochrane,
the Cessnocks, Montgomery of Langshaw, and the heirs of
' Fountainhall, Historical Notices, ii. 559. ° lb., ii. 561.
' History, Book in. chap. viii. § 4 ; vol. ii. p. 398.
' Historical Notices, ii. 594.
6 Hist. MSS. Com., C. H. Stirling Home Drummond, 1885, p. 94.
8 Thomson's Acts, viii. App. 336, 39a, 576, 60a.
SIR ALEXANDER MONRO 25
Mr. Robert Martin. It was of course a grave infraction of
the criminal law to admit written evidence.
The deposition is printed in the Appendix to Thomson's
Acts, and may be quoted in fuU : ^
' I was engaged in that Commission concerning Carolina
most innocently and with reluctancie, as is known to severalls
of the undertakers. And I declare I knew of no other designe
in it, bot to carry on a Scots plantation in that province,
which was a thing wery seriously intended by aU the under-
takers with whom I hade occasion to speak concerning it.
And if his Ma^^s letter to the CounciU hade not authorized
the designe, I hade never medled in it.
' When in my journey to London I came to Ular,^ I found
Jerveswood ther, who told me that he was resolved to goe to
London and did stay ther to get my company, hearing of
my coming. He told me the reason of his going that journey
was to shun the hazard that might foUow upon the sentence
ag* Blackwood which he beleiued no man in the west countrey
could escape. And he found himself very ill stated with the
late Chancellar.
' We mett w* S^ John Cochran in Yorkshyre whom I
askt who that Inghshman was who hade bein at his house.
And he affirmed to me that he knew not, bot he beleiued he
was some trepan to insnare him. Neither did he at any
time after teU me what he was. Nor did I ever hear his
name untill his RoyaU Highness questioned me what I knew
concerning Mr. Smith who hade bein at S^ John Cochrans
house, when I was caUed before the King and the Councill
of Ingland.
' Some time after our arrivall at London S"" John Cochran
begun to teU me of great discontents amongst the Inghsh,
and that they were much concerned for Argyle. At severall
times he talked to that purpose and of ane association and of
1 Thomson's Acts, viii. App. 33, 34. ^ Wooler in Northumberland.
26 SIR ALEXANDER MONRO
petitions from the Counties to the King, all which past as
the language of that countrey.
'About the begining of May Rowallans and Cessnocks
elder and younger and Bruntsfeild and Crawforland and
Langshaw came to London. S"" John Cochran heard of it,
and told me he was going to visite them, and if I would goe
w* him I might get the news from Scotland. When we came
to them they told us they hade come ther to shun the hazard
they found themselves under by the sentence against Black-
wood. And in the discoTirse it was askt by some of them at
S' Johne if he thought that by the secretaries or any other
way they could obtaine any releif from his Ma*'e, To which
S'' John answered that he thought it would be wery difficult.
' Some weeks after My Lord Melvil, and S^ John Cochran,
and Cessnocks elder and younger, and Langshaw, and
Mr. William Weitch, and Mr. William Carstaires and I met
at Jerveswoods chamber, wher ther was much discourse of
the danger from Blackwoods sentence. And they exprest ther
apprehensions that the countrey might run together to save
themselves and so make a present distiirbance. And it was
proposed that some person should be sent to prevent it, if
possible, and to know the condition of the countrey and what
they inclined to for ther owin safety. S"" John Cochran spake
of money which he said the Inglish would furnish to Argyle
to buy armes to send to Scotland, and if they would attempt
any thing for ther owin releif they might get assistance of
horse from England. Bot my Lord Melvil and Cesnok elder
and yo'" were altogether ag* medling w* the Inglish, and my
Lord MelviU said we never medled w* them bot they ruined
us. And I concurred w* them and exprest my dislike of
these dangerous courses as much as I could : and they re-
solued not to medle w* the Inglish, bot to send one home to
know the condition of the countrey, and what the people
were inclined to doe, and if they were like to run together,
to endeavour by all meanes to hinder it. And to let them
SIR ALEXANDER MONRO 27
know what he heard of maters in England, that they might
be the more circumspect.
' Mr. Robert Martin was sent, and some money was given
him by the company to bear his charge. He was advised
to goe to a gentleman in the South whom I know not, bot I
beleiue his name is Pringle. I doe not know if any bodie
did write w' him. When he returned he gave accompt that
such as he spoke with promised to endeavour as much as they
could to keep all quiet, though they thought it might be
difi&cult enuch, for a small sparke might kindle the whole
countrey. Likewise at his retxun he told me he hade met
w* my Lord Tarras, Polwart, and Philiphauch.
' Shortly after I receaued a letter from Polwart which
was not subscribed telling me that he beleiued ther would
be maney in Scotland willing to shew themselues concerned
for ther owin safety, or to that purpose, bot I doe not exactly
remember the words.
' It was before the aboue melting, as I remember, that
Shiphird came in wher I was dining, at which time ther was
no discourse of any publict concern, and I hade none at all
w' Shiphird, for I knew him not untiU he was gone that I
asked his name and came to imderstand that he was a midhng
man and hade bein a great trustie of Shaftsburries. Some
days after he saluted me upon the Exchange, and that day
in the afternoone as I was passing through the Exchange he
mett me about the midle of it and invited me to goe w* him
to a glasse of good wine which he was to get w* Mr. BaiHe. I
was faint and sick and would bein glade of it w* any other,
bot I refused him and left him abruptly. Severall days after
he mett me in the Strand and stopt me in the croud, and said
to me the money is readie, to which I answered passing away
from him, you are infatuat S^, and I hade never more dis-
course w* him then as aboue.
' I did never know of any money intended to be sent to
the late Argyle by Shiphird or any other, nor did I belieue
28 SIR ALEXANDER MONRO
any such thing, though I heard it spoken oflf. Nor did I
know of the late Argyles correspondence w* the IngUsh or
w* any Scotts man, only I heard the forenamed Mr. Weitch
say that he hade a letter from him, bot I know not what was
the contents of it.
'If any thing more of these maters shaU recurre to my
memorie or can be brought to it I shall be readie to give ane
ingenuous accompt therof. Bot my memorie is truly so
sore chattered that every thing sHps out of it. And I hade
never remembered some passages aboue receited w^out help.
Bot I find as much as is mater of shame and sorrow to me,
though I know not how I have bein insnared into them, for
I am sure my wiU never consented to any thing that I judged
prejudicial! to his Matie and the Government.
' I doe remember that the Lord Melvill called me one
day from my lodging to goe w* him that I might salute the
Duke of Monmouth, who being at the Lord Russals house
we went ther, and after some discourse the Lord RussaU
spoke to Melvil about sending 10,0001'^ to Argyle to buy
armes, at which Melvil laughed and said they might aswell
send ten pence, and brake of the discourse, and w^in a htle
left them, and when he came away he s'' they were unhappy
that medled w* these people.
' To the best of my memorie I heard S'' John Cochran
speak of a Manifesto to be emitted by the Inglish.
' I heard to the best of memorie S'" John Cochran and
Jerveswood or one or other of them talking as if they might
expect Tuentie thousand men in Scotland.
' Al^ Monbo.
' Edr [11] Sepr 1684. This deposition given in by Comis-
sary Monroe was signed and sworne by him in presence of
' Perth. Cancelli"
' Drumond Queensberry
' Geo. Mackenzie Da. Falconar.'
SIR ALEXANDER MONRO 29
On December 2, 1685 Monro completed his humiliation
by taking the Test, whereupon he was readmitted an advocate.
Fountainhall was very indignant, and wrote in his Decisions : ^
' This gave a generall discontent to the Advocats . . . and
the Lords should be more tender of the Faciiltie's reputation,
by which most of themselves have risen, unles they ware
commanded to doe it by superior powers.'
For the rest of King James's reign Monro remained in
obscurity, but as soon as the Revolution was accomphshed
he emerged again into prominence. He joined in the stream
of Scotsmen who rushed up to London to welcome William
of Orange, and, doubtless, to solicit preferment from him.
In the latter purpose he must have been disappointed, for
the only use made of him was to get him to carry back an
order from the Duke of Hamilton for the disbandment of the
College of Justice company of volunteers, who were suspected
of Jacobite leanings. ^ Monro himself had been chosen
Lieutenant at the original embodiment of the company on
November 27, 1666.
The Estates appointed him on March 28, 1689 to be their
solicitor to despatch proclamations and orders to the places
where they were appointed to be published or put in execu-
tion.^ He was also nominated a Commissioner of Supply
for StirUngshire, and was one of those charged with super-
intending the election of magistrates for the burgh of Stirhng,
and with raismg the county militia to resist the threatened
attack of ' Papists ' from Ireland and elsewhere. His appoint-
ment as Commissioner of Supply was renewed in 1690 and
1696.
Sir Patrick Hume in one of his letters to Lord Melville,
the new Secretary of State in London, says : * ' Everyone
^ Fountainhall, Historical Notices, ii. 681.
2 Somers Tracts, xi. 504.
' Thomson's Acts, ix. 23, 29a, 52, 140 ; x. 29.
* Leven and Melville Papers (Bannatyne Club), p. 100.
30 SIR ALEXANDER MONRO
rekons Commissary Monro for a Lord of Session. I wish
he were, and it is your interest that he be.' Monro was
not however to advance on a judicial career, but undaunted
by his previous experiences he once again plunged into
pohtics.
As soon as the Estates were duly converted into a
Parliament, a constitutional struggle began, the government
party or ' courtiers ' being opposed by the ' country party,'
or, as it was called by its enemies, the ' Club.' The latter
was in a majority and was carefully organised, Alexander
Monro, who was not yet in Parliament, acting as clerk.
Canvassing was actively carried on, and prehminary meet-
ings were held at Penston's tavern in the High Street, where
the plans of campaign for the debates were arranged.^
The chief ostensible question at issue was a proposal
by the King to conduct the business of Parliament through
the Lords of the Articles, a committee for preparing the
measures to be submitted to the whole House. The opposi-
tion fought for a free debating Parliament as in England.
The constitutional struggle was complicated by personal
jealousies. The ' Club ' included several leading men who
had expected but had failed to get appointments at the
Revolution, so the struggle was largely one between the
' Ins ' and the ' Outs.'
Lord Stair, President of the Court of Session, and his son.
Sir John Dalrymple, the Lord Advocate, were the chief
objects of attack. They had been political trimmers, and
as Officers of State under the Stuarts they shared the responsi-
bility for the late oppressive administration. Lord Stair
was threatened with impeachment, and the fight was so bitter
that the ' Club's ' enemies alleged that it was engaged in
treasonable correspondence with the Jacobites. The allega-
tion may have been true of Sir James Montgomery of Skel-
morlie. Lord Annandale, and Lord Ross, but it was certainly
1 Leven and Melville Papers {Bannatyne Club), pp. 153, 24C.
SIR ALEXANDER MONRO 31
untrue of Monro and men like Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun
and Sir Patrick Hume, who had suffered so much and so
recently from the Stuarts.
The ' Club ' prevented any of the government measures
from being carried in the session of 1689, and passed five
resolutions to Umit the royal prerogative, two of them being
aimed at Stair. None of these resolutions received the
Royal assent, as the Commissioner refused to touch them
with the sceptre, but next year the King gave way on the
question of a free Parliament.
On June 6, 1690 Alexander Monro took his seat in Parlia-
ment as one of the Commissioners for Stirlingshire,^ and sat
through eight sessions tHl February 1701. He was at once
chosen as one of the Barons to sit on the Commission for
Plantation of Kirks.
One of the first acts of the session of 1690 was a general
revocation of penalties for religious offences since 1665, and
a series of acts was also passed to rescind particular for-
feitures, including those of the leading conspirators of 1683.
The forfeiture of the late Robert Baillie of Jerviswood was
rescinded on the narrative that ^ ' the other witnes that
proves anything, viz. Alexander Monroe of Beircrofts, was
in prisone for the same cause and had confessed and was Uke-
wayes comed in the King's mercy, and had then gotten no
remissione, bot was threatned with tortiu-e if he would not
depone, as he hes acknowledged judiciaUie before the Parlia-
ment.'
As Monro's property had been exempted from confiscation
in reward for his evidence, he did not require a rescissory
act, but he appealed in July 1690 for an indemnity for his
sufferings,^ and three years later he petitioned to be restored
to his office as Clerk of Parliament and Session. He was
1 Thomson's Acts, ix. 107, 132, 201.
2 lb., ix. 158.
3 76., ix. App. 83, 91.
32 SIR ALEXANDER MONRO
induced to withdraw the latter claim, and ParUament there-
upon passed an Act recommending him to the King for
favourable consideration. As a result he was knighted in
1695 and was granted a pension of £150 sterUng : the value
of the latter favour is somewhat discounted by the fact
that at his death his pension was two and a half years in
arrear.
In the autumn of 1690 he was engaged to prosecute Lord
Tarbat, afterwards first Earl of Cromartie, late Lord Clerk
Register, before a special commission, on the charge of
' embezzUng ' (falsifying) the minutes of Parliament ; ^ but
the prosecution failed.
He found time to take an active part in the local affairs
of Falkirk, where he was a heritor. ^ The re-estabhshment
of Presbyterianism caused a struggle there, as in many
parishes. The old Episcopal minister died at the beginning
of 1690, but his assistant claimed a presentation from the
Earl of Callendar, the patron, and refused to obey the order
of the General Assembly to desist from preaching and to
deliver up the keys of the church, the registers and other
church property. Monro was appointed in April 1691 along
with two other members of the new kirk session. Sir Alex-
ander Hope of Kerse, and Sir. Livingstone of Bantaskine, to
recover the property, but it was many months before they
succeeded and a new minister was settled.
The Privy Council passed an act in April 1692 conferring
the unpaid stipend of the parish upon a neighbouring minister,
and Monro was appointed to make a representation on behaK
of the kirk session with a view to getting the decision
reversed.
In 1692 Lady Stair died,— an event which was greeted
with indecent glee by the many opponents of the Dalrymple
family. Maidment reprints a pasquil ' Upon the long wished
' Leven and Melville Papers (Bannatyne Club), p. 567.
2 Annals of Falkirk, G. I. Murray, vol. ii. pp. 13, 16, 29.
SIR ALEXANDER MONRO 33
for and tymely death of the R* Hon. The Lady Stair,' in
which the following lines occiir : ^ —
' Rejoice old clubbers, Rosse and Skelmorlie,
Dalrymple's faction now hath lost ane eye.
WiU BaiUie ^ then with Commissar Monroe
Rejoice, for Auntie ^ has got the fatal bloe.
She will perplex nor trouble you no more,
HeU's tum-keey now hath shut the fatal door.'
Monro acted as clerk to a commission, appointed by the
King on April 29, 1695, to inquire into the circumstances of
the massacre of Glencoe.^ The commission, which was
presided over by the Marquis of Tweeddale, Lord Chancellor,
and included the Lord Advocate, Lord Justice Clerk, and
two other judges of the Court of Session, hastened through
its work, and reported on June 20, severely censiu-ing the
Master of Stair, Secretary of State, who was forced to retire.
In 1696, and again in 1697, 1000 Scottish soldiers were
required for service in the Low Countries, and the Com-
missioners of Supply in each county were responsible for
raising their quota. Arbiters were also nominated to settle
disputes between the Commissioners and the recruiting
officers as to the sufficiency of the men to be ' outreiked ' for
the levy. Sir Alexander Monro and WiUiam Cunninghame of
Buchan being the persons nominated for the shire of StirHng.^
In 1699 Monro and iour other Commissioners of Supply
for Stirhngshire were appointed to fix the maximum price
for the sale of victual at the markets within the county.^
In the parhamentary session of 1696 Sir Alexander Monro
supported the government in getting supply voted. Adam
1 A Booh of Scottish Pasquila, p. 192. ^ Wm. BaiUie of Lamington.
3 Lady Stair. * Carstares State Papers, 237.
' Proclamations, March 3, 1696 and December 16, 1696, Adv. Lab. Pamphlets, vol. i.
6 76., March 31, 1699.
E
34 SIR ALEXANDER MONRO
Cockbum wrote to the Earl of Annandale : ^ ' The first year
past unanimously eneugh, but the second mett with great
opposition. In the committee Grant, Cullodin, and Whit-
law wrought it throw. In the parliament the Chancellor
pres't it and Commissare Monro second him. No men so
forward as thire nouveaux convertis.^
In the session of 1698 supply was the main business.
Votes were required for maintaining a standing army, and the
opposition, led by Lord Tulhbardine, fought on the question
of principle, and made capital out of the great scarcity pre-
vaiUng in the country and the prospect of another bad harvest.
The officers of state made strenuous exertions to gain sup-
porters, and Sir Alexander Monro was one of those to whom
Lord Chancellor Marchmont (Sir Patrick Hume) paid par-
ticular attention. The government had to play their trump
card, a threat from the King that any who opposed the vote
would lose their places and pensions. This was an argument
which would carry weight with Monro, and he seems to have
given the impression that he would support them,^ but when
the trial of strength came with the elections of the four
committees of Parliament — for security, for trade, for con-
troverted elections, and for answering the King's letter —
he absented himself, and some of his associates, CuUoden,
Torwoodlee, and Brodie, voted with the opposition. The
government candidates were carried, and Monro's trimming
brought him into great disfavovir in high places, and closed
his political career.
The next session (1700-1701) was occupied with the affairs
of the unfortunate Darien company, to which Monro had
subscribed £200. Parliament passed a series of imanimous
but unavailing resolutions to the effect that the company
was a lawful association and should be supported by the
Crown, that redress should be demanded for the attacks of
1 Sir Wm. Fraser, Annandale Family Book, ii. 127.
2 Carstares State Papers, 384, 387, 398, 401, 412.
1501 3f;^
SIR ALEXANDER MONRO 35
the Spaniards, and that the resolutions of the EngUsh ParUa-
ment adverse to the company were an unwarrantable inter-
meddling with Scottish affairs. The only question was
whether an address to the King should be voted or an Act of
ParHament passed. The majority were in favour of an
address, but Sir Alexander Monro voted in the minority, and
with eighty- three others had his protest recorded. ^ This
was his last session in Parliament.
Sir Alexander Monro died in Edinburgh on January 4,
1704 aged seventy-four, and was buried two days later in
Greyfriars Churchyard. He was predeceased by a daughter
Margaret, who was baptized on May 30, 1664 and died in
infancy, and by his second son Archibald, who was baptized
on September 8, 1666 and was his father's colleague as Com-
missary of Stirling between 1693 and 1697. The family who
survived him consisted of two sons — George of Auchinbowie,
and John, the father of Professor Alexander Monro (Primus),
and three daughters — LiUias, Jean and Mary. Mary, who
was unmarried, died of a ' decay ' on May 20, 1706 aged
thirty, and was buried at Greyfriars. Jean married in 1710
WUHam Sempil, eldest surviving son of Sir WUham Sempil of
Cathcart, and died without issue at Edinburgh in April 1725.^
By his will, dated in July 1703,^ he appointed his daughter
Jean his sole executrix and bequeathed her his movable
property (an inconsiderable quantity), recommending her
to be helpful to her brother John ' untU he attains to the
benefit of his employment.' The daughters had provisions
of 6000 merks each, secured upon Bearcrofts, which went to
the eldest son. John's provisions depended upon a memor-
andum by his father which led to litigation among the family.
Though Sir Alexander was ' an accurat man and a good
lawyer,' this document, by which John was to get 2500
^ Tho)nson's Acts, x. 246.
" Edinburgh Testaments, November 16, 1725.
3 Stirling Testaments, February 16, 1704.
36 SIR ALEXANDER MONRO
merks and an assignation of a holding in the Darien com-
pany of £780 Scots, was ' maculate, scored, interhned and
cancelled with different ink in several parts.' The matter
was idtimately settled in John's favour after three years'
litigation with his brother. ^
Sir Alexander Monro registered arms : ^ or, an eagle's
head erased gules, holding in her beak a laurel branch vtrt :
crest, an eagle perching or : motto, l^on inferiora.
* Morison, Dictionary, 5052 ; ArnisUm Session Papers (Adv. Lib.), ii. 7.
^ See Title-page.
CHAPTER III
COLONEL GEORGE MONRO OF AUCHINBOWIE, AND HIS
DESCENDANTS
Geobge Monro, who succeeded to Bearcrofts, had been
appointed a Captain in the Cameronian Regiment at its
embodiment in 1689, and was a soldier of some distinction.
The regiment was raised under unique circumstances.
In March 1689, dtu"ing the sitting of the Convention of Estates
which offered the Crown to William and Mary, the perse-
cuted followers of Richard Cameron from the west cotintry
had volunteered to act as a guard for the members. ' Some
of them did stay a while in the city, being employed in helping
to keep guard and cast up trenches against the castle (which
at this time stood out), and others of them staid longer, and
kept watch every night in a room of the house where the Earl
of Crawford, Lord Cardross and Sir Patrick Hume of Polwart
lodged, to hinder any from assassinating them, which was
feared then.' ^
A month later Lawrie of Blackwood and Captain WiUiam
Cleland, with the help of Sir Patrick Hume, got leave from
the Estates to levy two battaUons, each to consist of ten
companies of sixty men. James, Earl of Angus, a lad of
twenty, the son of the Marquis of Douglas, was commissioned
Colonel, and WUham Cleland, who was only twenty-seven,
Lieutenant-Colonel. A general meeting of the United
Societies of Covenanters was convened for Monday, April 29,
at the kirk of Douglas, ^ for the purpose of enrolling recruits.
1 Michael Shields, Faithful Contendings, p. 388. * lb., p. 393 seq.
38 COLONEL GEORGE MONRO
The previous day was spent by the ' great multitude of people '
in hearing sermons from Messrs. Lining, Boyd and Shields at
a field meeting beside the town, and on the Monday a fierce
debate took place on the question : ' Whether or not at this
time it was a sinful association for one regiment to be in an
army, while there were many officers malignant and bloody
men, and all under one general ? ' The majority voted in the
affirmative, but the minority felt so strongly the necessity
of defending their country and their rehgion against the
threatened attacks of Highlanders and ' Irishes,' that they
drew up a series of conditions upon which they were wUliag
to serve — ' terms,' as Macaulay says, ' subversive of all
military discipline.' ^
They stipulated that the officers should be ' such as have
not served the enemy, nor persecuted and opposed the cause,
nor engaged by the Declaration, Test, or other sinful oaths
and bonds to oppose and suppress the cause we fight for ' :
or if they had offended in that respect they were to ' make
public acknowledgement on the head of the regiment ' : the
officers were not to enhst men, but the men were to raise the
companies and select or approve their captains and officers :
they were not to be called upon for foreign service : they
were to be allowed to select their ministers of rehgion ; and
they were to have ' liberty to represent and remonstrate our
grievances sustained these years bygone and impeach accord-
ing to law and justice the chief instruments and abettors
thereof, in church, state, army or country.'
These conditions were presented to Lieut. -Colonel Cleland
next day, but he very properly replied that while he would
not give an officer's commission to any one who was obnoxious
to them, most of their conditions were not in his power to
grant. An amended set of proposals was drawn up for pre-
sentation to General Mackay, Commander of the Forces in
Sootland, and the meeting was adjourned for a fortnight.
^ History of England, chap. xiii.
COLONEL GEORGE MONRO 39
In the interval the captains were appointed, including George
Monro, and they set to work to raise their companies.
At the adjourned meeting on May 13 the soldiers presented
to the officers a ' humble petition ' setting forth their desires
in even greater detail, together with a declaration to be
signed by all officers and men. These were presented to Sir
Patrick Hume, who had come from Edinbin-gh, but he
explained to the delegates that though he sjonpathised with
their wishes, a contract of this nature between officers and men
could not be tolerated by military discipline. However, he
himself drew up a modified manifesto setting forth their
purpose in enUsting, and next morning read it to each com-
pany in turn with an explanatory speech from Alexander
Shields. The articles were as follows : ^ ' (1) That all the
officers of the regiment shall be such as in conscience and pru-
dence may with cordial confidence be submitted unto and
followed ; such as have not served the enemy in destroying,
nor engaged by oaths and tests to destroy, the cause now to
be fought for and defended. (2) That they shall be well
affected, of approven fidelity, and of a sober conversation.
(3) They declare : That the cause they are called to appear
for is the service of the King's Majesty in the defence of the
nation, recovery and preservation of the Protestant religion ;
and in particular the work of reformation in Scotland in
opposition to Popery, prelacy and arbitrary power, in all its
branches and steps, until the government of church and state
be brought back to their lustre and integrity, established in
the best and purest times.'
These articles were accepted as satisfactory, and ' thus
was Lord Angus's regiment raised and managed.' The
soldiers chose Alexander Shields as their minister, and it is
said that each man carried a Bible in his knapsack.
Michael Shields says : ^ ' To this account I shall add this
one thing, viz. : That there were some objections made
* A. Crichton, Life of Colmel Blackadder, p. 72. ^ Faithful Contendings, p. 404.
40 COLONEL GEOEGE MONRO
against some captains which the lieutenant-Colonel choosed,
especially against Captain Monro, yet they were made officers
in the regiment.'
Monro, however, was soon to justify his appointment.
By this time Claverhouse had raised the standard of
revolt in the Highlands, and 400 of the Cameronians were
ordered to the west to guard the coast of Lome and Eantyre
against invasions of Irish Jacobites. ^ The rest of the regi-
ment, consisting of 800 men, spent the next few weeks in
' clearing the braes of Stirlingshire of lowse and iU-affected
men who might be fomid in arms,' and during July they
garrisoned Perth to check inroads into the Lowlands.
In August, against the advice of General Mackay, they
were ordered by the Estates to occupy Dunkeld, a defence-
less post in the midst of a hostile country, and immediately
found themselves obUged to He to their arms. They arrived
on the evening of Saturday, August 17, and next morning
' they began some Retrenchments within the Marquis of
Athol's yard-dykes, the old breaches whereof they made up
with loose stones.' ^ In the afternoon 300 of the enemy
appeared on the hiUs, and sent in a message of defiance.
On the Monday morning the regiment was reinforced by
two troops of horse and three of dragoons under the com-
mand of Lord Cardross. At night they had inteUigence of
a great gathering by the fiery cross, and the number of the
enemy had increased by the morning to more than a thousand.
Next morning (20th) ' about eight of the clock the horse,
foot, and dragoons made ready to march out, but a detach'd
party was sent before of fourty fusiUers and fifteen hal-
bertiers, under command of Cap* George Monro and thirty
horse with Sir James Agnew, and twenty dragoons with the
Lord Cardross his own cornet; after them followed Ensign
Lockhart with thirty halbertiers. The first detached party,
after they had marched about two miles, found before them
1 Life of Colonel Blackadder, pp. 74, 90. " Ih., p. 90 seq.
COLONEL GEORGE MONRO 41
in a glen betwixt 200 and 300 of the rebels, who fired at a
great distance and shot Cornet Livingston in the leg. The
horse retired, and Captain Monro took up their ground, and
advanced, fireing upon the rebels to so good purpose, that
they began to reel and break, but rallied on the face of the
next hill, from whence they were again beat. About that
time the Lieutenant Collonel came up, and ordered Captain
Monro to send a serjeant with 6 men to a house on the side of
the wood, where he espyed some of the enemies. Upon
the Serjeant's approach to the place, about twenty of the
rebels appeared against him, but he was quickly seconded
by the Captain, who beat them over the hill and cleared the
ground of as many as appeared without the woods ; and
upon a command sent to him brought off his men in order.
Thereafter all the horse, foot and dragoons retired to the town ;
and that night the horse and dragoons marched to Perth, the
Lord Cardross, who commanded them, having received two
peremptory orders for that effect.'
The departure of the cavalry and the knowledge that
they must soon expect the main body of Highlanders tmder
Cannon, Dundee's successor, proved too much for the soldiers'
nerve. ' Some of them proposed that they might also march,
seeing they were in an open useless place, ill provided of
all things, and in the midst of enemies. . , . The brave
Lieutenant Collonel, and the rest of the gentlemen officers
amongst them, used all arguments of honoxu" to persuade
them to keep their post ; and for their encouragement and
to assure them they would never leave them, they ordered
to draw out all their horses to be shot dead. The soiildiers
then told them they needed not that pledge for their honour,
which they never doubted ; and seeing they foimd their
stay necessar they would run all hazards with them.
' Wednesday ^ with the morning's hght the rebels appeared,
standing in order, covering all the hills about, (for Cannon's
1 August 21.
F
42 COLONEL GEORGE MONRO
army joyned the Athole men the night before, and they were
repute in all above 5000 men). Before seven in the morning,
their cannon advanced down to the face of a little hUl, close
upon the town, and 100 men, all armed with back, breast,
and head piece, marched straight to enter the town, and a
battalion of other foot close with them. Two troops of
horse marched about the town, and posted on the south west
part of it, betwixt the foord of the river and the church,
and other two troops posted in the north-east of the town
near the Cross.
* The Lieutenant CoUonel had before possessed some out-
posts, with small parties, to whom he pointed out every step
for their retreat. . . . All the outposts being forc'd, the
rebels advanced most boldly upon the yard dykes all round,
even upon those parts which stood less than fourty paces
from the river, where they crowded in multitudes, without
regard to the shot liberally pour'd in their faces, and struck
with their swords at the souldiers on the dyk, who, with their
pikes and halberts returned their blows with interest. Others
in great numbers possest the town houses, out of which they
fired within the dyks, as they did from the hUls about.'
Within an hour Colonel Cleland was killed and the Major
disabled, so the command fell to Captain Monro.
' Finding the soldiers galled in several places by the
enemies' shot from the houses, he sent out small parties of
pikemen with bvirning faggots upon the points of their pikes,
who fired the houses ; and where they foimd keys in the
doors, lock'd them, and burnt all within ; which raised a
hideous noise from those wretches in the fire. There was
sixteen of them burnt in one house, and the whole houses
were burnt down, except three, wherein some of the regiment
were advantageously posted. But all the inhabitants of the
town, who were not with the enemy, or fled to the fields,
were received by the souldiers into the church.
'Notwithstanding all the gallant resistance which these
COLONEL GEORGE MONRO 43
furious rebels met with, they continued their assaults in-
cessantly, imtil past eleven of the clock. . . .
' At length, wearied with so many fruitless and expensive
assaults, and finding no abatement of the courage or dili-
gence of their adversaries, who treated them with continual
shot from all their posts, they gave over and fell back, and
rvm to the hiUs in great confusion. Whereupon they within
beat their drums and flourished their colours, and hoUowed
after them with all expressions of contempt and provocations
to return. Their commanders assay' d to bring them back
to a fresh assault, as some prisoners related, but could not
prevail ; for they answered them, they could fight against
men, but it was not fit to fight any more against devils.
* The rebels being quite gone, they within began to con-
sider where their greatest danger appeared in time of the
conflict ; and for rendring these places more seciu-e, they
brought out the seats of the church, with which they made
pretty good defences ; especially they fortified these places
of the dyk which were made up with loose stones, a poor
defence against such desperate assailants. They also cut
down some trees on a little hill, where the enemy gaU'd them
imder covert. Their powder was almost spent, and their
bullets had been spent long before, which they supplyed by
the diligence of a good number of men, who were imployed
aU the time of the action in cutting lead off the house, and
melting the same in little fmrrows in the ground, and cutting
the pieces into sluggs to serve for bullets. They agreed that
in case the enemy got over their dyks, they should retire to
the house, and if they should find themselves overpower'd
there, to burn it and bury themselves in the ashes.
' In this action 15 men were kUled, besides the officers
named, and 30 wounded. The account of the enemies'
loss is Tincertain, but they are said to be above 300 slain. ^
1 The Jacobite account written by Lochiel gives the Cameronian loss at 300, and
that of the Highlanders as less than 20 : Memoirs (Abbotsford Qub), pp. 286, 288.
44 COLONEL GEORGE MONRO
' That handful of inexperienced men was wonderfully
animated to a steadfast resistance against a multitude of
obstinat furies. But they gave the glory to God, and praised
him, and sung psalms after they had fitted themselves for a
new assault.'
Captain Monro was promoted to be Major after the battle.
The regiment then marched to Aberdeen, and thence back
to Montrose, where it remained for the winter.
On September 24, 1689 Sir Alexander Monro wrote to
Sir Patrick Hume expressing keen dissatisfaction with the
state of the regiment, probably a reflection of his son's views : ^
' Sir, if ye be acquainted with the Earl of Angus, I pray
you assure him that his regiment most necessarly break if
they be not dehvered from Blackwood and Mr. Shiels. They
are worst payed of any of the forces, and they are naked,
and their heads are blown up with such notions as renders
them intoUerable. They are worse than ever they were
every way ; the reputation they gained wiU quickly wanish.
I hear the Earl is a discreet youth, and understands his
busines, and if he desires to have a regiment, he most quite
change the frame of this, for they refuse all subjection to
disciphne. They run away and returns as they please, ther
owin brutish officers comphes with them in all ther dis-
orders ; gentlemen are disgraced in conjunction with them,
and no gentleman can bear Blackwood's arbitrary govern-
ment. If the Earl hade commissions from the King for men
who are worthie to be officers, he might have a good regiment
in eight days' time of these same souldiers or others. Bot
I fear I have insisted too long upon this subject, which I was
provok't to, reflecting upon your sone's company, which
was sent to Cardrosse with three more. Your sone is heir
and some others of the officers, who have got accompt that
almost all these companies are not run away but gone away
with a high hand, declaring they would serve no more untill
1 Hist. M8S. Com., Marchmont MSB, 1894, p. 119.
COLONEL GEORGE MONRO 45
they got ther pay for August and September, and all malig-
nant officers were remowed from them, and these are in a
word all the gentlemen.
' I saw a letter this day from Captain Campbell dated
from Purgatorie, wishing he had gone to keep sheep when he
first put himself into such company. Yet these who under-
stands them are perswaded that if they were quite of ther
beastly officers and Mr. Shiels and Blackwood, they might
be very tractable souldiers, and doubtles they would be
brave fellows.'
Early in 1690 the regiment was reduced by ballot, and
Greorge Monro's company. No. 5, was one of those disbanded.^
He then took command of an independent company of foot,
100 strong, which was quartered for a time at Blair Athole
and afterwards at Finlarig on Loch Tay as a garrison against
attacks by the Highlanders. ^ He was ordered to take fifty
men to Fort William on December 15, 1691 just before the
massacre of Glencoe.^ Subsequently he served in Holland
as Major in Colonel George Hamilton's Regiment of Foot,
and was present at the siege and captm-e of Namur from the
French in August 1695. A few months later he retired
owing to some pecmiiary difficulties with his Colonel.^ He
then married and settled down in Stirhngshire, and was
appointed on January 29, 1698 his father's colleague and
successor as Commissary. He was eventually given the rank
of Colonel.
His wife was Margaret Bruce, second daughter of Robert
Bruce of Auchinbowie. This property, which lies in the
parish of St. Ninians about five miles south of Stirling, had
been in the Bruce family since 1506, when it was acquired
' English Army Lists and Commission Registers, iii. 87.
^ Papers Illustrative of the Highlands (Maitland Club), p. 12.
3 Calendar of State Payers (Domestic), 1691-92, p. 34.
* Carstares State Papers, p. 266.
46 THE BRUGES OF AUCHINBOWIE
from Robert Cunningham of Polmaise^ by Robert Bruce,
burgess of Stirling, fifth son of Alexander Bruce of Airth.^
Bruce's descendant and namesake, Robert Bruce, died in
1694, leaving three daughters, Janet, Margaret and Jean ;
and Janet succeeded to the undivided property under an
entail executed by him.^ She married Captain William Bruce,
of Colonel John Buchan's regiment, eldest son of WiUiam
Bruce of Newtoun. On April 30, 1699 Captain Bruce killed
a yoxmg neighbour, Charles Elphinstone of Airth, in a quarrel
as they were riding home from a convivial meeting at Lord
Forrester's.* He fled from justice, and on September 22
was ' fugitated.' Ten years later he returned to stand his
trial, and successfully pleaded the Act of Indemnity of 1708,^
which granted, as an encouragement to loyalty, a general
free pardon for past offences.
Meanwhile his wife found herself unable to cope with the
burdens on Auchinbowie, and as she had no family she sold
her interest in the property to her sister Margaret and Major
Monro her husband. She died in October 1708.6
The disposition is dated February 21, 1702, and narrates'
that ' some creditors have already raised summonds and
intented a process of adjudication, and others will certainly
be provocked to doe the same, whereby the said lands and
estate are in hazard to be lost by me, to the great hurt and
prejudice of the heirs of tailzie aftermentioned ; all which
I am not in a capacitie to prevent, being altogether destitute
of money or any other means to free me of or support me
under such a burden ; and seeing that my second lawful
sister Margaret Bruce and Major George Monro her husband
are in a far better condition for freeing and relieving the said
1 R. M. S., 1424-1513, No. 2981. ^ The Pedigree Register, ii. 27.
' Inquisiliones, Stirlingshire, No. 318.
* Major W. B. Armstrong, The Bruces of Airth, pp. cxx-cxxii.
" 7 Anne, c. 22 ; Hume on Crimes, ii. 503.
' Services of Heirs, 1710-19.
' Books of a and S. (Mackenzie), February 27, 1702.
THE BRUGES OF AUCHINBOWIE 47
lands, estate and barony of Auchinbowie of the present burden
it lys under, and that she is the next heir after me to ovir said
dearest father, and that by granting of these presents his
memory and estate may be preserved . . .' ; accordingly she
sold them the estate, reserving a liferent annuity of £400
Scots, and also stipulating that the surname of Bruce should
be preserved. This last condition was disregarded, and
Major Monro and his wife were thenceforth known as Monros
of Auchinbowie.
It is to be observed that at that time, and down to its
division in 1789, the property was twice its present size,
and was valued as a fifteen-merk land. The mansion-house
is t3rpical of the seventeenth century : it is an L-shaped
biiilding, and used to have an octagonal staircase in the
angle. On an old sundial on the lawn the Bruce and Monro
arms are quartered, with the initials G.M., M.B. — George
Monro, Margaret Bruce. ^
On his father's death George Monro succeeded to Bear-
crofts under burden of 3500 merks of debt, and subject to
provisions in favour of his three sisters amounting to 18,000
merks. He represented to them that these encumbrances
were more than the property could bear, and induced them
to forgo 1000 merks each ; but they stipulated that their
brother John was to get half the benefit of this concession.
George Monro soon proved the groundlessness of his argument
by selling the property for 70,000 merks to Margaret Hamilton,
widow of John Hamilton of Bangoxu-. The sale took place
in January 1706, but by arrangement the price was paid
in instalments ranging over the next fourteen years. On
August 4, 1720 Lady Bangour sold the property to Patrick
Haldane, advocate, afterwards of Gleneagles.^ It now belongs
to the Marquis of Zetland.
1 Macgibbon and Ross, Castellated and Domestic Architecture, v. 227.
^ P. R. /S.— Stirling, July 24, 1719, November 15, 1723.
48 COLONEL GEORGE MONRO
Sir Robert Sibbald, writing about 1710, calls Bearcrofts
' a fine House with Gardens and Inclosvires,' but the remains,
which now form part of the farm buildings, are those of a
very modest habitation.
George Monro was one of the Commissioners appointed
by the Crown in 1718 to inquire into the disorders and
irregularities in Glasgow University, especially in connection
with the rectorial elections. '^
In September 1720 Colonel Monro, who was by that time
a widower, disponed Auchinbowie to Alexander, his eldest
son, who had lately married (contract dated March 4, 1719)
Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Stewart of Tillicultry, a Judge
of the Court of Session. The Colonel stipulated to be
allowed to live at Auchinbowie with the young couple, and
to be given £50 a year of pocket money. He also resigned
his office as Commissary, to which Alexander was appointed
on April 27, 1721. Colonel Monro died later in the year.
His other children were Margaret, born March 26, 1707,
and George, who was commissioned on August 19, 1718
Lieutenant in Major-General John Hill's Regiment (1 1th Foot) :
he was afterwards in Colonel Duroure's (12th) Regiment, and
was killed at the battle of Dettingen, June 16, 1743.
An early misdemeanour brought Alexander Monro under
the censure of St. Ninians kirk session,^ but after his mar-
riage he reformed. He was chosen an elder on January 20,
1722, and almost every year till his death he was selected
to represent the session at synod and presbytery meetings.
In 1734 he fought the kirk session before the presbytery
over a proposal to erect the church steeple on part of the old
Auchinbowie burying ground, but he was unsuccessful, and
eventually accepted the site of the old steeple in exchange.^
1 Munimenta TJniversilalis Glasguensis (Maitland Club), ii. 562.
2 Kirk Session Records, October 21, 1716, November 14, 1717.
3 lb., July 18, 1734.
ALEXANDER MONRO OF AUCHINBOWIE 49
On February 1, 1746 the church, which was being used as a
powder magazine by the Highland army, was blown up,
but the steeple, an elegant piece of architectiire, escaped
destruction, and still stands, though at a distance from the
present chiu-ch.
Auchinbowie was encumbered with 22,000 merks of debt
when Alexander Monro got it ; his finances soon became
seriously embarrassed, and eventually in 1733 he granted a
trust deed in favotir of five of his principal creditors ^ — his
brother-in-law, Sir Robert Stewart of Tillicultry, his cousin,
Professor Alexander Moru-o (Primus), and three others. They
appointed their own factor, and managed the property during
the remainder of his hfe.
In 1738, on the death of his mother's first cousin, Grizel
Bruce, Alexander Monro succeeded to Riddoch or Reidheugh,
a smaU property adjoining Bearcrofts.
Grizel Bruce was the daughter of WUham, brother of
Robert Bruce of Auchinbowie, and Riddoch had belonged
to her grandfather, James Alexander. ^ She was an eccentric
and impulsive woman. When a girl of nineteen she gave
orders for the uprooting of ninety-two trees which Sir Alex-
ander Monro had planted on the march between the properties,
and in consequence was summoned before the Justices of the
Peace and fined. ^
The succession to Riddoch came to Alexander Monro as
the residt of a curious and discreditable adventure of the
lady's.* In 1714, when she was of the mature age of thirty-
seven, she made an expedition to London. ' She was no
temptation for her beauty, her reputation was not entire,
and the company with whom she consorted was none of the
1 p. B. /S.— Stirling, February 28, 1733.
2 Inquisiliones, Stirlingshire, No. 386. ' FoTintainhall, Decisicms, i. 749.
* House of Lords Appeals, Robertson, 386; HamilUm-Qordon's Session Papers
(Adv. Lib.), 1st Ser., 2 B 39 ; 1 R 35.
G
50 ALEXANDER MONRO OF AUCHINBOWIE
best.' On short acquaintance she went through a ceremony
of marriage with a man who held himself out to be Sir John
Col vile, with an income of £1500 a year, but turned out
next day to be one Colquhoun, an ex-sergeant of Footguards,
with several wives already. Alexander Monro, who was a
mere youth at the time, came up to London in March 1715:
he foimd lodgings for his cousin and busied himself in getting
the marriage annulled and procuring the conviction of
Colquhoun, who was burnt through the hand and imprisoned
as his punishment. In return for his services she promised,
or else he suggested, a disposition to him of Riddoch in the
event of her dying without children. Nothing definite was
done, and on May 21, while driving in a coach with him, she
was arrested for debt at the instance of her lawyer, and taken
to a ' spunging-house ' ; but whether this was a plot arranged
by young Monro was a matter of dispute. After two days'
confinement she agreed to sign a disposition as the price of
her hberty, but on her return to Scotland she raised an action
to have it set aside. The Court of Session took her view,
but the decision was reversed in the House of Lords, and
the disposition held good. Riddoch was in the barony of
Falkirk, but as the Earl of Linlithgow, the superior, was
attainted after the 1715, Grizel Bruce took the opportunity
of getting a charter direct from the Crown,^ the annual
reddendo being eighteen shillings.
Alexander Monro died on October 12, 1742,^ and his
widow died in Edinburgh on September 27, 1763.3 They
had a large family, but aU seem to have died unmarried,
except Geokge, the eldest son, an army surgeon, who in-
herited Auchinbowie and Riddoch. The others who grew
up were Alexander,* a writer in Edinburgh, born August 10,
1724, died unmarried February 15, 1750, John, and the eldest
1 J?. M. S., July 26, 1716. ^ Services of Heirs, 1740-9.
3 Edinburgh Courant, September 28, 1763.
« Edinburgh Testaments, Alexr. Monro (Primus), October 28, 1767.
DR. GEORGE MONRO 51
girl Cecil, born December 16, 1719, died January 15, 1786.1
The children who died in infancy were — Robert, born July
1722, Margaret, born August 1723, Grissell, born January
1726, Marion, born April 1727, and Heugh, born August 1729.
On his father's death George Monro made up a formal
title to both properties. He seems to have sold Riddoch,
but the management of Auchinbowie continued in the hands
of the trustees for the creditors, who advertised it to be let,
describing it as including ^ ' a large mansion house with stables,
barns, pigeon house, etc., aU in good condition, and the
garden and orchards containing about six acres stocked
with fruit trees of the best kinds, as also the laigh inclosures
consisting of arable, pasture and meadow grounds, contain-
ing about eighty acres . . . and the high inclosures and fir
park called the Bar and Barside, a good part of which is
arable and the rest a good pastxire, containing 192 acres and
fenced with a dry stone dyke, 2 ells in height, aU well watered
and lying contigue.'
In May 1744 Professor Monro and the other creditors
entered into an arrangement whereby the Professor took
over aU the debts on the estate, then amounting to £5236,
and the trustees granted a renunciation in favour of the
laird, who thereupon disponed the estate to the Professor
under btu-den of his mother's annuity of 1200 merks. On
June 22, 1744 the Professor obtained a Crown charter ^
in favour of himself in hferent, and John his eldest son in
fee, and thus Auchinbowie passed to the younger branch of
the family, who are descended from Sir Alexander Monro
of Bearcrofts through his son John.
George Monro was appointed to the family office of
Commissary on November 2, 1742, and held it till 1765, but
for most of the time he must have exercised it by deputy,
* Edinburgh Courant, January 18, 1786.
2 Caledonian Mercury, April 7, 1743. ' R. M. S., vol. 98, No. 83.
52 DR. GEORGE MONRO
for as early as 1750 he was Surgeon in the Earl of Panmiire's
(25th) Regiment. He saw active service in Germany, and
afterwards in the war against the French in America. He
was placed on half -pay in 1773, but in 1781 he was appointed
Physician General to the garrison in Minorca, and went
through the six months' siege by the French and Spaniards.
It was on the strength of reports by him and his colleagues
that General Murray finally surrendered.
On February 1, 1782 he reported : ^ ' The prevailing
disease, the scurvy, amongst the troops, is got to such an
alarming height as seems to us to admit of no remedy in our
present situation ; every means has been tried to palliate
this formidable malady, but the daily and we may say, the
hourly falling down of the men baffles all our endeavours.
We are sorry to add that it does not appear to us that any
one now in hospital will be able to do the smallest duty
under the present circumstances.'
The General in reply asked that the men on duty shovdd
be medically examined, and on February 3 Dr. Monro reported
that there were 560 men in hospital, 106 of whom had gone
down in the last two days, while 660 were still on duty.
' We judge it necessary to add that those men will, in all
probability, be in a few days incapable of performing any
duty, from the rapid progress the scurvy makes amongst
them : the constant duty the men are obhged to perform,
the impossibiUty of procuring any kind of vegetables in the
present situation of affairs, and the damp foul air those men
constantly breathe in the subterraneans, are cause sufficient
to dread the consequences.' Two days later Fort St. Philip
was surrendered.
Dr. George Monro married Jane, daughter of Andrew
M'Comish of Crieff, and rehct of Law Robertson. He died
at Argyle Square, Edinburgh, on February 24, 1793,^ aged
about seventy-two : his widow survived till December 28,
1 Edinburgh Advertiser, April 2, 1782. ' Scots Magazine, 1793, p. 102.
DR. GEORGE MONRO 53
1802. They had two sons, George and Hector William :
the latter, a Lieutenant-General in the army and Governor
of Trinidad, married on January 20, 1796 Philadelphia Bower,
heiress of Edmondsham in Dorsetshire, and fomided the
family of Monro of Edmondsham. ^ He died at Bath on
January 3, 1821, leaving three sons and four daughters.
George, his elder brother, is said to have served in the
41st Foot, and to have risen to the rank of Major. He
married EHzabeth Aylmer, and had two sons, (1) George
Aylmer, Captain in the 42nd Royal Highlanders, who married
on January 28, 1812 Ann Sarah, daughter of Henry White.^
He was kUled at Badajos later in the year. (2) Harry ; and
(3) a daughter Caroline, who died unmarried. Harry had
two sons, Alexander Aylmer and Harry George.
1 Burke, Landed Gentry.
2 Register of St. Paul's, Covent Garden (Harleian Society).
CHAPTER IV
JOHN MONRO, SURGEON IN EDINBURGH
John Monro, father of Professor Alexander Monro (Primus),
was the third son of Sir Alexander Monro of Bearcrofts
and Lillias Eastoun, and was baptized at Edinburgh on
October 19, 1670.
He was educated in physic and surgery, being apprenticed
to William Borthwick, surgeon, and after 1689 to the famous
Dr. Christopher Irvine. He got part of his training at Leyden
University, which he entered on October 11, 1692.^
On March 7, 1695 he was commissioned Surgeon in Lieut.-
General Sir Henry Belasyse's Regiment of Foot, in after
years the 6th (Warwickshire) Regiment. During that spring
they were in camp between Bruges and Ghent, and later in
the year they took part in the siege of Namur under the
personal command of King William ni. The regiment
returned to England in March 1696, and was quartered at
Windsor, and after being in Brussels from July to November
1697, it again came home, and in August 1698 was ordered
to Ireland, where it remained for three years.
During several successive winters John Monro got leave
of absence, and lived in London, and some time during this
period he married his cousin, Jean, daughter of Captain
James Forbes, second son of the Duncan Forbes who bought
the barony of CuUoden in 1616. Her mother, Agnes Monro,
was a daughter of Mr. George Monro of Pitlundie.^
^ Album Slvdiosorum AcademicB Lugduni BatavicB.
2 Lumsden, Family of Forbes, p. 87.
JOHN MONRO
JOHN MONRO, SURGEON 55
Captain James Forbes, who died at CuUoden on April 15,
1672, left, besides his daughter Jean, two sons — Alexander,
merchant in Edinburgh, who died in 1700,^ and Charles,
who was Captain in the regiment commanded by the Colonel
HiU who became notorious on account of the massacre of
Glencoe. Captain Charles Forbes afterwards joined the ill-
fated expedition to the Darien colony, and died there in
July 1699.
Professor Alexander Monro (Primus) was born in London
on September 8, 1697 — if not an only child, the only one
who survived.
In 1700 John Monro left the army, and settled in Edin-
burgh. He had to borrow 1000 merks from his sisters to
enable him to set up in business as a chirurgeon-apothecary,
but shortly afterwards he succeeded to £1100 Scots on the
death of his sister Mary.
He was admitted to the Incorporation of Surgeons on
March 11, 1703, and ' his knowledge in his profession and
engaging manners soon introduced him into an extensive
practice.' The Town Council appointed him to take charge
of their sick pensioners. His apothecary's shop was first
in Smith's new land at the head of Bailie Fyfe's Close, ^ and
afterwards in David Kinloch's land ^ on the north side of
the High Street between Halkerston's Wynd and Kinloch's
Close.
In 1712 and 1713 he was elected Deacon of the Surgeons,
and in the same years was chosen Deacon Convener of the
Trades with a seat on the Town Council, as a ' gentleman
weU-aflfected to Her Majesty's Person and Government.'
He also sat as one of the representatives of the City in the
Convention of Royal Burghs during that period. On the
accession of George i. he gave his allegiance to the House of
' Edinburgh Testaments, Captain Chas. Forbes and Alesr. Forbes, October 15, 1700.
- Edinburgh Courant, April 4, 1709.
^ Edinburgh Protocols, 8 Hume 161.
56 JOHN MONRO, SURGEON
Hanover, and is mentioned among those who took part in
the proclamation at the Cross on August 5, 1714.
All honour is due to John Monro. He conceived the
scheme which created the Edinburgh Medical School and
Royal Infirmary, and he determined that his son should be
the instrument for accomplishing it. He was careful to give
him every advantage in general and professional education
to fit him for his career, and while the boy was growing
up, he himself was busy arousing enthusiasm for the scheme
among his professional brethren and the municipal authorities,
and especially with the famous Provost George Drummond.
He lived to see the complete success of his plan, and his
grandson. Dr. Donald Monro, gives a pleasant picture of the
old man's latter days, which he spent at Carrolside, a country
seat near Earlston in Berwickshire bought for him by his
son, happy in having achieved the idea of his life and in
witnessing his son's renown.
His wife died some time between 1705 and 1711, and in
August 1721 he married again, his second wife being Margaret
Crichton, widow of William Main, merchant. About a year
later he bought a house of six rooms and a kitchen in a tene-
ment on the west side of Covenant Close. ^ His son after-
wards acquired another house on the third story of the
same tenement,^ and lived there tiU his death. John Monro
also acquired, in right of his second wife, a tenement of
houses at the head of Halkerston's Wynd, which involved his
son in a lengthy litigation.^
John Monro died at Carrolside in 1740,* and his wife
survived him. His portrait by WiUiam Aikman hangs in
Surgeons' Hall, Edinbiu-gh.
1 Edinburgh Protocols, 7 Watt 98.
" Edinburgh Courant, December 23, 1767.
' Hamiltcm-Oordon's Session Papers, M vol. 5, No. 23
* Lauder Testaments, December 2, 1740.
i;Il".i-orAiiiiU>injr.iLti<l Fellow of (lie Collr.gc of 1'hjfljei.iiiB. Edinburgh. i-F-R5 .
CHAPTER V
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (PRIMUS)
It has been already stated that Alexander Monro, the only-
child of John Monro and Jean Forbes, was born in London
on September 8, 1697, and was brought to Edinburgh when
he was three years old.
His father took great pains with his education, and had
him instructed in the Latin, Greek, and French languages,
philosophy, arithmetic, and book-keeping. ' After having
gone regularly through the usual course at the University
of Edinburgh, he was bound apprentice to his father, who
was now in extensive practice ; and no means were neglected,
which Edinburgh could afford, in order to promote his im-
provement in physic and surgery, and to cultivate the sterling
talents which he discovered at a very early period.' ^
Edinburgh, however, offered little opportunity at that
time for the systematic study of medicine. Messrs. Adam
Drummond and John M'Gill, who had been appointed pro-
fessors of Anatomy by the Incorporation of Surgeons, showed
the dissection of a human body once in two years, and some
instruction in chemistry was given by Dr. Crawford, and in
pharmaceutical plants by Mr. George Preston.
These advantages were quite inadequate, so at the beginning
of 1717, on the completion of his apprenticeship, young Monro
was sent to London to study anatomy under WiUiam Cheselden,
the famous surgeon, who was an enthusiastic teacher and a
skUful demonstrator. Pupil and teacher were kindred spirits,
1 Bower; History of the University of Edinburgh, ii. 169.
H
58 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (PRIMUS)
and a lasting friendship was formed between them. In order
to gain as much experience as possible Monro lodged in the
house of an apothecary and visited patients with him, and
he also attended lectures by Mr. Whiston and Mr. Hawksby
on experimental philosophy. He made dissections of the
human body and of various animals, and his career was nearly
cut short owing to a scratched hand being infected by the
suppurated lung of a phthisical subject. Cheselden encour-
aged his students to form a scientific society, and Monro
took an active part in the discussions, and in one of his papers
first sketched his ' Account of the Bones in general.' Before
he left London he sent home to his father some of his anatom-
ical specimens, and received the encouraging reply that on
his return to Edinburgh, if he continued as he had begun,
Mr. Drummond would resign his share of the professorship
of Anatomy in his favour.
In the spring of 1718 he went to Paris, where he walked
the hospitals and attended a course of anatomy given by
Bouquet. He performed operations under the direction of
Thibaut, and had instruction in midwifery from Gregoire,
bandages from Cesau, and botany from Chomel.
On November 16, 1718 he entered as a student of Leyden
University in order to study under Boerhaave, the great
physician, who lectured on the theory and practice of physic.
Many patients from Scotland came to consult Boerhaave,
and were put under Monro's care : the young man had
frequent and ready access to him, and the friendship thus
formed lasted for many years.
On his return to Edinburgh in the autumn of 1719 young
Monro was examined by the Incorporation of Siu-geons, and
was admitted a member on November 19. Mr. Drummond
then fulfilled his promise of resigning his professorship, and
Mr. M'Gill did likewise ; and they gave him a recommenda-
tion to the Town Council, the patrons of the University.
This was backed up by the Surgeons, and on January 22,
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO [PRIMUS) 59
1720 the Council appointed him Professor of Anatomy with
a salary of £15 sterling, this modest sum being supplemented
by the students' fees of three guineas a head.
His ' CoUedge of Anatomy in all it's parts, with the Opera-
tions of Surgery and Bandages ' was advertised ^ to begin on
the first Monday of November following, and in the meantime
his father privately made great exertions to attract notice
to the inauguration of the undertaking. The CoUege of
Physicians presented to the Town Council a resolution in
favour of its encouragement,^ which the Council itself en-
dorsed ; ^ and the opening lecture in the old Surgeons' HaU
was attended by the magistrates, the Deacon and board of
the Sxu"geons, and the President and members of the CoUege
of Physicians. This unexpected company so much alarmed
the young professor that he forgot the words of his lecture,
which he had committed to memory ; but fortunately he had
the presence of mind to begin by showing some anatomical
preparations and explaining them in impromptu language,
with successful results. He afterwards adopted the practice
of speaking from short notes.
His anatomical course, which lasted until the end of
April, was repeated for thirty-nine sessions. His lectures
were illustrated by dissections of the human body, and also,
for comparison, of the bodies of quadrupeds, birds, and fishes.*
After giving the anatomy of each part he treated of its diseases,
especially those requiring operation. He showed the opera-
tions on the dead body, with the various bandages and
apparatus, and ended with a few lectures on physiology.
In the summer of 1721 and 1722 he was persuaded by his
father to give a course of public lectures on wounds and
tumours.
1 Caledonian Mercury, September 22, 1720.
2 Minutes of R. C. P. E., August 2, 1720.
' Council Register, xlviii. 204.
* Sir John Struthers, Edinburgh Anatomical School, p. 23.
60 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO [PRIMUS)
His father had by this time secured a fiirther develop-
ment of his scheme by inducing Dr. Alston, King's Botanist
for Scotland, to undertake a course of lectures on materia
medica, which began in the winter of 1720 and went on
concurrently with the anatomy course ; and in 1726 four
young Fellows of the College of Physicians, Drs. Sinclair,
Rutherford, Innes, and Plummer, who had also been study-
ing at Leyden under Boerhaave, were appointed by the
Town Council to lecture on chemistry and various branches
of medicine.
The whole scheme was framed upon the model of Leyden
University, and it is not surprising that Boerhaave' s doctrines
had a great influence in Edinburgh ; in the anatomy class
the text-books were his Institutiones medicce and Aphorismi
de cognoscendis et curandis Morbis.
Between 1713 and 1718 the University had conferred the
degree of Doctor of Medicine upon four applicants, no examina-
tion being required of them. In November 1718 the Uni-
versity applied to the Royal College of Physicians to nominate
one or more of their Fellows to join with Dr. Crawford,
Professor of Physic, in examining a candidate. This practice
was adopted on about eight occasions down to November
1726, when the University intimated to the College ' that
now that there was a sufficient number of Professors of
Medicine to make a Facultie of Medicine, they should not
trouble the CoUedge any more upon that head. But were
thankful for what favours they had received, and desired to
live in good correspondence with the CoUedge.' ^ It does
not appear that the Professor of Anatomy was one of the
examiners at this date ; the degree was looked upon as
purely medical.
Monro's original appointment as professor was only during
the pleasure of the Town Council, but in 1722, encouraged
by his success, he apphed for a permanent status, and although
1 Minutes of R. C. P. E., November 1, 1726.
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {PRIMUS) 61
the Council had as lately as August 1719 reaffirmed the
principle that regentships and professorships were to be held
at their pleasure, nevertheless they departed from it, and by
resolution of March 14, 1722, ' for his better encouragement
of new nominate Alexander Monro sole Professor of Anatomy
within this City and CoUege, and that ad vitam aut culpam.^
This important precedent was probably due partly to Monro's
own brilliance and partly to the sage advice of George
Drummond ; it was afterwards followed, and had the effect
of giving the professors a position of independence and dignity
which they had not hitherto enjoyed.
Till 1725 MoMO continued to lecture in the old Sm-geons'
HaU on the south side of Surgeons' Square, but in that year
he was granted a theatre in the University buildings. The
change was due to special circumstances. For fifteen years
past there had been a popular suspicion that some of the
young siu-geons were violating graves in order to get bodies
for dissection, and on May 20, 1711 the Incorporation of
Surgeons held a meeting to consider measures for stopping
this practice, and put on record their condemnation of it.
The great stimulus to anatomical study given by Monro's
lectures had the effect of reviving the alarm, and the Surgeons
took further steps by ordering ' that a clause should be put
into aU indentures of apprentices against violation of the
churchyards.' ^ The Professor himself had to submit to
stringent regulations in procuring subjects, and had to notify
each body by letter to the officials of the Incorporation.
These measures did not allay the excitement of the populace,
who towards the end of the session 1724-5 beset the HaU
threatening to demolish it, and the tumult was with diffi-
culty quelled by the magistrates.
On April 17, 1725 Professor Monro wrote to the news-
papers : 2 ' Whereas several Reports have of late been spread,
^ Minutes of Surgeons, January 24, 1721 ; March 2, 1725.
' Caledonian Mercury, April 20, 1725.
62 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {PRIMUS)
and are believed by well meaning but too credulous People,
that the Surgeon Apprentices, encouraged by the Professor
of Anatomy, have Hfted or attempted to lift human Bodies
from their Graves or Places of Interrement, and that such,
who because of the Vigilance of the Magistrats durst not
continue in their vile Practices of Pilfering and Robbing,
have, by personating Surgeons, endeavoured to skreen
themselves from Discovery, and thereby brought a Calumny
and Scandal on those Surgeons, as if they could be so destitute
of all Religion and Humanity, as to be guUty of that mon-
struously barbarous Crime of dissecting living Men and Women,
or of taking away their lives in order to dissect them ; I,
Alexander Monro, Professor of Anatomy, do therefore take
this Opportunity publickly to declare my just Abhorrence
of that vile, abominable, and most inhumane Crime of steal-
ing human Bodies out of their Graves, and which must
directly tend to the Ruin of my Profession.' He ended by
offering a reward of £3 sterling for the discovery of each
offender, and this was reinforced by the Incorporation of
Chirurgeon Apothecaries, who offered a reward of £10, and
by the magistrates, who offered £20. ^
To prevent a recurrence of these disturbances and to
ensure the safety of his anatomical collection Monro applied
to the Town Council on October 20 for a theatre within the
University. George Drummond had just been elected Lord
Provost, and at his instance the request was at once granted,
and Monro was formally received into the University on
November 3, 1725, the day on which his friend Cohn Maclaurin
was inducted to his professorship of Mathematics as assistant
to Professor Gregory. Incidentally the chair of Anatomy
passed from the control of the Incorporation of Surgeons.
At the end of 1726 Monro published his Anatomy of the
Human Bones,^ which went through eight editions in his
lifetime, the later ones including a treatise on the nerves.
1 Council Register, 1. 478. ^ Caledonian Mercury, January 5, 1727.
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (PRIMUS) 63
It was translated into most European languages, and in
1759 a folio edition with 'elegant engravings' was published
in Paris by M. Joseph Sue, Professor of Anatomy to the
Royal Schools of Surgery and to the Royal Academy of
Painting and Sculpture. The great reputation which Monro's
work attained did much to increase the fame of the new school
of medicine in Edinburgh.
Professor Monro and Provost Drummond are rightly
considered the founders of the Royal Infirmary, but this
institution, like the rest of the scheme, was originally planned
by the Professor's father. The magistrates had for long
appointed a physician and a surgeon to attend the sick poor
among the freemen burgesses, and the Physicians and
Surgeons as corporations had given gratuitous advice and
medicines to the rest of the poor.
In 1721 John Monro and some of his friends proposed
the establishment of a regular hospital, and an appeal for
funds was drawn up by the Professor and circulated.^ For
several years the scheme languished for want of support, but
at the end of 1725 it was revived by Provost Drummond,
who formed the nucleus of a fmid by obtaining assignations
of some shares in the moribund Fishing Company, of which
he was a manager. ^ The plan was taken up by the Royal
College of Physicians,^ who headed the subscription list
and secured the support of the ministers of the Church of
Scotland, the Episcopal clergy and the public of Edinburgh.
In three years £2000 was subscribed: the College of Phy-
sicians called a meeting of subscribers, and a committee
was elected to carry the scheme into execution.
On August 1, 1727 the College of Physicians had passed
a resolution binding its members to attend the hospital
in rotation for a fortnight at a time, their services to be given
^ First Report of Infirmary Managers, 1730.
2 Adv. Lib. Pamphlets, rfg.
' History of Royal Infirmary, 1778, p. 4 seq.
64 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (PRIMUS)
gratuitously.^ The provision of surgical treatment and
medicines presented a difficulty, for overtures had been
made at the same time to the Incorporation of Surgeons
suggesting similar action on their part, but there was con-
siderable jealousy between the two bodies, and no answer was
received. Accordingly on January 13, 1729, at one of the
first meetings of the managers. Professor Monro volunteered
to undertake the whole surgical attendance and to furnish
medicines at cost price. This generous ofifer was accepted, but
when the Surgeons heard of it, ' they entertained some dismal
apprehensions and consequences,' and hastily offered that
their members should attend in turn and that they would
furnish medicines gratis for two years. Professor Monro
expressed his willingness to give way if the committee pre-
ferred this arrangement, but they seem not to have been
satisfied that the offer contained a sufficiently definite obli-
gation, and eventually a solution was found in a personal
undertaking by six surgeons, including Messrs. Monro and
M'Gill, to make themselves responsible for the surgical
attendance and supply of medicines gratis, until the patients
should exceed a certain number.
On August 6, 1729 the first hospital was opened ^ at
a small house which the subscribers had rented at the
head of Robertson's Close, a street running south from the
Cowgate.
On August 25, 1736 the managers obtained a Royal
Charter, and appealed for funds to build a regular infiirmary.
There was a liberal response, and two years later Robert
Adam, the eminent architect, was employed to draw plans
for a building to accommodate about 250 beds. The founda-
tion was laid on August 2, 1738, and Messrs. Drummond and
Monro were unanimously chosen by the contributors to serve
> A Vindication of the Managers of the Royal Infirmary, 1741, p. 4 seq. ; Minutes of
R. C. P. E., August 5, 1729.
2 Edinburgh Hospital Reports, 1893, vol. i. p. 3.
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {PRIMUS) 65
on the building committee of six, and they paid the work-
men with their own hands. The progress of the work excited
great enthusiasm : many who had not money to subscribe
contributed materials or labour/ and in December 1741
the building was opened.
The Incorporation of Surgeons, taking umbrage at the
supposed shght upon them, had opened a hospital of their
own in July 1736,^ and refused for some years to associate
themselves with the scheme for the Royal Infirmary; but
when its success was assured, they approached the managers
in May 1738 with a petition that all members of their Incor-
poration might be allowed to attend in turn, ' in order to
preserve ane equaHty amongst the Surgeons of Edinburgh,'
and promised that on that condition they would abandon their
own hospital. The managers agreed to these terms, and the
system by which each surgeon was allowed, if he wished, to
attend for two months at a time continued tiU the beginning
of the nineteenth centiu"y, when it was fiercely and successfully
attacked by Dr. James Gregory.
The Physicians followed the opposite poHcy, and in
1751, realising the advantages of continuity in attendance,
they appointed two Ordinary Physicians as the permanent
medical staff.
The establishment of the hospital, even before the new
building was begun, led to another institution with which
Monro's name is connected, namely the Medical Society,
which passed through several phases, and ultimately became
the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
A regular register of cases was kept at the hospital, and
it occurred to some of the visiting physicians and surgeons
that the results of their observations might be pubUshed
in the form of essays. They invited the co-operation of
other practitioners, and the Medical Society was formed
^ Letter relating to the Royal Infirmary, by ' Philasthenes,' 1739, p. 11.
" Memorial to the Managers of the Royal Infirmary, Dr. James Gregory, 1800.
I
66 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {PRIMUS)
with Monro as secretary. During the first year the members
attended the meetings regularly, and papers were read and
discussed, but in 1732, after the publication of the first
volume of Medical Essays and Observations, they grew remiss
in their attendance, and very soon the meetings ceased
altogether. The Society published six volumes, which passed
through several editions and were translated into the French,
German, and Dutch languages. Monro is said to have con-
tributed about a quarter of the material, and his labours
as editor were considerable. Sir Robert Strange, the engraver,
says that while apprenticed to Cooper he worked at some of
the anatomical plates.
In 1737 a proposal was adopted to increase interest in the
Society by enlarging its scope so as to include all branches
of natural science.^ There were forty-five original members
of the ' Philosophical ' or ' Physical ' Society, as it was now
called, and they met at first in one of the lecture-rooms in
the University and afterwards in the Advocates' Library
on the first Thursday in each month except September and
October. James, fourteenth Earl of Morton, was elected
President, and Monro was invited to be Secretary on the
medical side, but declined, and his place was taken by Pro-
fessor Plummer, with Colin Maclaurin as his colleague for the
new section. Once more keenness at the start was succeeded
by lethargy, and the rebellion of 1745, followed a few months
later by Maclaurin' s death, dealt the Society such a blow as
to leave it comatose for several years. In 1752 it was revived,
and Monro was persuaded to take the secretaryship jointly
with ' the very ingenious and celebrated David Hume Esq.' ^
In 1754 a volume of transactions appeared under the title
of Essays and Observations, Physical and Literary, and it
was followed two years later by another volume. Monro
* Royal Society of Edinburgh, General Index of vols. 1-34, pp. 3 and 22. List of
original members and rules of the Philosophical Society.
2 Scots Magazine, 1754, p. 184.
PKOFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (PRIMUS) 67
contributed two papers to the first series and four to the
second.
The Society seemed likely to languish again, so Professor
Monro was chosen a Vice-President, and his son Alexander
(Secundus) became Secretary; but the next volume did not
appear until 1771.
Monro soon attained a European reputation as a teacher.
Principal Sir Alexander Grant says : ^ ' He was the first
professor of any kind who drew great attention to the Uni-
versity of Edinburgh from without, and gave it the beginnings
of its celebrity.'
The number of students in the class of anatomy increased
steadily ; ^ during the first year there were 57 in attendance ;
the average for the first decade was 67, for the second 109,
and for the third 147. Monro (Secundus) calculated that
4431 students passed through his father's hands, and they
were drawn from all parts of the British Isles and from the
Continent too.
An interesting tribute to Monro comes from the pen of
Oliver Goldsmith, perhaps his most famous pupil. He spent
two sessions in Edinburgh, 1752-3 and 1753-4, and wrote to
his uncle, the Rev. Thomas Contarine, on May 8, 1753 : ^
' Apropos, I shall give you the professors' names, and, as
'^ Story of the University of Edinburgh, ii. 386.
2 Bower (History of the University, ii. 179) gives the numbers, which were com-
municated by Monro (Tertius), as follows : —
1720 .
57
1730 .
83
1740 .
130
1750 .
. 158
1721 .
68
1731 .
82
1741 .
136
1751 .
. 144
1722 .
62
1732 .
107
1742 .
131
1723 .
68
1733 .
104
1743 .
164
1724 .
58
1734 .
111
1744 .
150
1752-8 .
. 891
1725 .
51
1735 .
95
1745 .
76
1726 .
65
1736 .
131
1746 .
182
1727 .
81
1737 .
123
1747 .
165
1728 .
70
1738 .
119
1748 .
160
1729 .
90
1739 .
137
1749 .
182
Life of Goldsmith, John Forster, i. 434.
68 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {PRIMUS)
far as occurs to me, their characters ; and first, as most deserv-
ing, Mr. Monro, Professor of Anatomy. This man has brought
the science he teaches to as much perfection as it is capable
of ; and not content with barely teaching anatomy, he
launches out into all the branches of physic, when all his
remarks are new and useful. 'Tis he, I may venture to say,
that draws hither such a number of students from most
parts of the world, even from Russia. He is not only a skilful
physician, but an able orator, and delivers things in their
nature obscure in so easy a manner, that the most unlearned
may understand him. . . .
' You see then, dear sir, that Monro is the only great man
among them ; so that I intend to hear him another winter,
and go then to hear Albinus, the great professor at Leyden.'
Dr. Andrew Duncan, Professor of Physiology from 1790
to 1821, wrote of Monro {Primus) : ^ ' He studied medicine
with a zeal and industry seldom paralleled, perhaps never
exceeded. He taught it with an enthusiasm and liberality
of sentiment proportioned to the importance of the art,
and he neglected no opportunity of encouraging genius.'
Dr. Thomas Somerville, Minister of Jedburgh, gives the
following account of him as a lecturer : ^ ' He lectured in
English. His style was fluent, elegant and perspicuous, and
his pronunciation perhaps more correct than that of any
pubUc speaker in Scotland at this time. I heard his con-
cluding lecture at the end of the session 1757, and I think I
had never before been so much captivated Avith the power
and beauty of eloquent discourse. The purpose of his address
was to impress on his students the moral and reHgious improve-
ment of the science of anatomy, as it displayed evidence of
the wisdom, power, and infinite goodness of the Creator,
whom, in conclusion, he entreated them with great solemnity,
in the words of the wise man, to " remember now in the days
of their youth." '
1 Harveian Oration for 1780, p. 33. ^ Life and Times, pp. 19-23.
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (PRIMUS) 69
In the session of 1753-4 the lecture-room proved too
small, and the Professor found it necessary to divide the class
and repeat his lecture in the evening. He soon handed over
the evening class to his youngest son, Alexander (Secundus),
who was on July 11, 1754 admitted conjiuict Professor. The
young man was only in his twenty-second year and his
education was not finished, so during the next four years
he could give little assistance, but he took sole charge of the
class at the beginning of 1757,^ while his father was suffering
from a dangerous fever, which confined him to bed for nearly
three months. In the summer of 1758 he finally returned
from abroad, and assisted in lecturing during the next
Primus then gave up lecturing and confined himself to
giving chnical instruction at the Infirmary in conjunction
with Drs. CuUen and Whytt. He had been vmdertaking this
duty for the past three years since the retirement of Dr.
Rutherford, and continued to give instruction until his last
iUness.
On January 1, 1756 the University of Edinburgh conferred
upon him the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He was admitted
a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians upon February 3
following, thereupon resigning his membership of the Incor-
poration of Surgeons, and he was elected a FeUow of the
CoUege on March 5 of the same year, on the same day as his
friend and colleague Dr. WiUiam Cullen, whose candidature
he warmly supported for the chair of Chemistry in 1755 and
for that of Physic in 1766. Monro had been elected a Fellow
of the Royal Society of London in 1723, on Cheselden's
recommendation, and he was also an honorary member of
the Royal Academy of Surgery in Paris.
He had a large private practice, and was consulted in all
kinds of cases, but he was not an operating surgeon, at least
not in the greater operations. His last public work was a
^ Edinburgh Courant, February 16, 1767.
70 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (PRIMUS)
treatise on the success of vaccination in Scotland, issued in
1765 in answer to inquiries by a board of French physicians,
who were investigating its results.
He could be a formidable antagonist on occasion. Since
1758 his son Alexander had been engaged in controversy with
WiUiam Hunter, the eminent but pugnacious anatomist, as
to the originality of their respective researches into the
lymphatic glands ; and in 1762 Hunter contributed an
article to the Medical Commentaries, in which he made a
furious onslaught on the Monros, father and son, and charged
them with deliberately suppressing aU reference to his dis-
coveries, and claiming the credit themselves.
Monro (Primus) then entered the lists by publishing An
Expostulatory Epistle. He begins by averring his unwiUing-
ness to forsake his retirement and resume controversy ;
' but,' he says, ' your late Attack in your medical Commentary
on my Candour and Veracity, the Part of my Character
which I always valued most, piques me so much, that I must
appeal to the Public for Redress ; and possibly when the
Spirit is thus roused, something more than my Vindication
may appear.'
He then demolishes Hunter's case piecemeal, and incident-
ally refers to one of his publications as a work, ' where, after
a pompous Introduction, which raises high Expectation of
Novelties, I found nothing that I had not seen in Books,
except several Mistakes.'
He brings his letter to an effective cUmax with a few
trenchant paragraphs in the grand style : ' I am affraid those
who read your Performance won't allow me to call it the
Effects of Generosity, Charity or Reverence ; possibly you
mean that you feel Contempt for a Dotard whom, you say,
you wish to have done with, which in a charitable Construction,
may be to wish him in Abraham's Bosom ; for which good
Wish your old Master returns you Thanks, and shaU at
present have done with you, after giving a friendly Advice
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (PRIMUS) 71
to you and an Exhortation to the Students in Anatomy. . . .
A Joke may sometimes pass for Demonstration, and if it is
of the sarcastical kind, may please a young Audience ; but
remember that indulging that Sort of Humour frequently,
though one is ever so confident of having smooth, artful,
ambiguous Words always at command, wiU create a Grudge
in the Hearts of all good-natured People against the sly
Back-biter. You wiU give less Offence by speaking in plam
Contradiction to those you have Occasion to dispute with,
as you see the blunt, testy old Fellow you are now engaged
with has done. . . .'
He indulges in a final thrust by signing himself ' Your
old Master, Alex. Monbo.'
Monro (Primus) was a man of extraordinary energy, with
a wide range of interests outside the immediate work of his
profession, and he took a prominent place in Edinburgh
society. He was librarian to the Incorporation of Surgeons
from 1720 to 1727, and was also curator of the University
Library, where he provided a collection of medical works
which he catalogued with his own hand.
After Colin Maclaurin^s death in 1746 he helped to pre-
pare for publication his Account of Sir Isaac Newton'' s Dis-
coveries, and the memoir prefixed to it is based on an oration
which he dehvered before the University. They had been
close friends for over twenty years, and the memoir tells of
their last conversation a few hours before Maclaurin's death. ^
Professor Monro was an active member of many societies.
His connection with the Medical and Philosophical Societies
has been already mentioned. He joined the Honoiu-able
Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in
Scotland, the earhest forerunner of the Highland and Agri-
cultural Society. It was founded in 1723, and perished in
the confusion of the '45.
He was one of the six presidents of the Select Society,
1 Maclaurin, Accmint of Newton's Discoveries, p. xi.
72 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {PRIMUS)
which was started on May 23, 1754 by Allan Ramsay the
younger ' for literary discussion, philosophical inquiry, and
improvement in public speaking.' ^ It consisted at first
of thirty members, and met in the Advocates' Library from
six to nine o'clock every Wednesday from November 12 to
August 12. Professor Monro was an original member, as
were Adam Smith and David Hume, who took no part in
the debates. Principal Robertson, the Rev. Hugh Blair,
John Home, author of the Douglas, Alexander Wedderbiu-n,
afterwards Lord Chancellor Loughborough, Lord Hailes and
Andrew Pringle (Lord Alemore). Dugald Stewart says on
the authority of Dr. ' Jupiter ' Carlyle : ^ ' The Society was
much indebted to Dr. Alexander Monro senior, Sir Alexander
Dick, and Mr. Patrick Murray advocate, who by their con-
stant attendance and readiness on every subject supported
the debate during the first years of its establishment, when
otherwise it would have gone heavily on.'
By 1759 the members had risen to 130, and included
aU the prominent men of Edinburgh — Professor Adam
Fergusson, Lord Provost Drummond, three Lord Presidents
in Robert Dundas, Thomas Millar and Hay Campbell, Lord
Kames, a very active member. Lord Monboddo and many
other judges.
From the Select Society sprang two offshoots. On
March 13, 1755 the members resolved to establish ' The Edin-
burgh Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Sciences,
Manufactures and Agriculture in Scotland.' Its affairs were
put into the hands of nine ordinary managers, of whom Pro-
fessor Monro was one, and nine extraordinary managers,
the subscription for members being two guineas. The Edin-
burgh Society had a successful career, and showed its activity
mainly by offering premiums in its various departments
for public competition.
1 ScoU Magazine, 1755, p. 126.
2 Principal Robertson, Works, i. 136, App. A ; Tytler, Memoirs of Karnes, i. 175.
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO [PRIMUS) 73
The second child of the Select Society was foredoomed
to failure. In 1761 the members set themselves to piirify
the Scottish dialect by propagating English idioms and pro-
nunciation, and resolved to form a ' Society for promoting
the reading and speaking of the EngUsh language in Scot-
land.' ^ Sixteen ordinary and ten extraordinary directors
were elected, but Professor Monro's name does not appear.
They went so far as to engage a Mr. Leigh, ' a person well
qualified to teach the pronunciation of the English tongue
with propriety and grace,' and then the ludicrous side of
the enterprise struck the Edinburgh pubHc. The Society
perished forthwith in ridicule, and with it disappeared its
parent, the Select Society. ^
Professor Monro was a manager of the Orphan Hospital,
and of the Ministers' Widows' Fund, founded in 1743, to
which the professors were admitted as contributors ; he was
a director of the Bank of Scotland from 1757 till his death ;
and after 1744, when he bought Auchinbowie, he was a
Commissioner of Supply and of High Roads and a Justice of
the Peace for the comity of Stirling.
He never hved at Auchinbowie, but he altered and
enlarged the house for the benefit of his eldest son.
In pohtics he was a strong supporter of the House of
Hanover, and in August 1740 he was one of a deputation
from the Incorporation of Surgeons who presented an address
to the Diike of Argyll thanking him for his attachment to
the cause of hberty.^
His son Donald says : ' After the unfortunate affair of
Prestonpans in the year 1745 he flew to the field of battle,
to assist the sick and wounded officers and soldiers in His
Majesty's service ; and after seeing their wounds dressed
he, by his singular activity, procured them provisions of
1 Scots Magazine, 1761, p. 440 ; 1762, p. 450.
^ Campbell, Lord Chancellors, 1847, vi. 30 (Lord Loughborough).
* Caledonian Mercury, August 11, 1740.
K
74 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {PRIMUS)
every sort and afterwards procured carriages for bringing
them to town, where he attended them with the greatest
assiduity and care. At the same time his humanity led him
to give assistance to many of the wounded rebels, who from
their wounds had become objects of compassion, even though
engaged in a cause which he did not approve of. The same
humanity led him, after the rebelhon, to represent to govern-
ment the assistance he had got from some of the rebel officers
in procuring provisions and necessaries for the wounded
officers and soldiers in his Majesty's service on that occasion,
which contributed to procure their pardon.' He exerted
himself to save the life of his old pupil. Dr. Archibald
Cameron, who was executed at Tybvirn in 1753 — the last
victim of the '45.
With his abihty and energy he combined other quaUties,
which go to make the character of a reaUy great man. Bower
speaks of his unaffected modesty, the absence of professional
jealousy, and the courtesy and sympathy which endeared
him to his students. ^ His pupil, Dr. John Fothergill, spoke
of him as ' justly denominated the Father of the College ' ; ^
and Smellie says : ^ ' As he felt strongly for distress, he was
liberal to the poor, but as he hated ostentation, his charity
was always privately bestowed. . . . He was a sincere and
steady friend, and a most cheerful and agreeable companion,
censure and detraction being almost the only subjects in
which he could bear no part.'
His home life was conspicuously happy. His affectionate
care of his father has been already noted, and his son Donald
says of his family : ' All that a child can owe to the best of
fathers, a pupil to his tutor, or a man to his friend, they owed
to him. In their youth he not only superintended their
education, but was himself their master in several branches ;
^ History of the University, ii. 191.
'^ Account of John Fothergill, M.D., J. C. Lettsom, p. vii.
^ Edinburgh Review and Magazine, 1773, i. 343.
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (PRIMUS) 75
and when they grew up he made them his companions and
friends.'
His portrait by Allan Ramsay the younger hangs in
Surgeons' Hall, and was engraved by Basire as a frontispiece
to the Collected Works which his son Alexander pubhshed
in 1782.^ Lavater, the physiognomist, was shown the
engraving without being told whom it represented, and
pronounced the following character, a wonderful tribute
to the accuracy of his science : ^
' A good, gentle and peaceable character, of a sanguine
— phlegmatic temperament. Goodness is depicted in his
eyes : the mouth breathes only peace ; and an amiable
serenity is diffused over the whole countenance. This man
is incapable of giving offence to any one ; and who could
ever suffer himself designedly to offend him ? He loves
tranquillity, order, and simple elegance. He takes a clear
view of the object he examines ; he thinks accurately ; his
ideas and his reasonings are always equally well followed
up ; his mind rejects all that is false and obscure. He gives
with a liberal hand, he forgives with a generous heart, and
takes dehght in serving his fellow-creatures. You may
safely depend on what he says, or what he promises. His
sensibility never degenerates into weakness ; he esteems
worth, find it where he may. He is not indifferent to the
pleasures of life ; but suffers not himself to be enervated by
them. This is not what is usually denominated a great
man — [Lavater is surely wrong here !] — but he possesses a
much more exalted character ; he is the honour of humanity,
and of his rank in life. Respectable personage, I know you
not ; I am entirely in the dark concerning you — but you
shall not escape me in the great day which shall collect us
all together ; and yoiu- form, disengaged and purified from
all earthly imperfection, shall appear to me, and strike my
ravished eye in the midst of myriads.'
* Edinburgh Advertiser, November 22, 1782. " Hutchinson's Biographia Medica, ii. 151.
76 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {PRIMUS)
The bust in the University Library bears the following
inscription :
Alexandei Monro Primi
Anatomiae per annos xl
Professoris meritissimi
Florentissimae Scholae Medicinae
in hac Academia
Conditoris
Discipuli quidam jam consenescentes
Et plures Filii et Nepotis ipsius
Discipulorum Discipuli
Summi Viri Memoriam venerati
hanc ejus Imaginem statuerunt
Anno post Obitum xlv.
A.D. 1812
Dr. Donald Monro prefixed to the Collected Works the
short memoir which has been already quoted. He describes
his father as ' a man of muscular make, of middle stature,
and possessed of great strength and activity of body ; but
subject for many years to a spitting of blood on catching
the least cold, and through his whole life to frequent
inflammatory fevers ; which he used to attribute to the
too great care his parents took of him in his youth, and to
their having had him regularly blooded twice a year, which
in those days was looked upon as a great preservative of
health.'
In the year 1762 he had an attack of influenza ; soon
after symptoms of cancer appeared, and from May 1766 till
his death a year later he was confined to the house. ' This
long and painful disorder he suffered with the fortitude of
a man and the resignation of a Christian, never once repining
at his fate ; but conscious of having acted an upright part
and of having spent his Kfe in the constant exercise of his
duty, he viewed death without horror, and talked of his own
dissolution with the same calmness and ease as if he were
going to sleep.'
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (PRIMUS) 77
He died at his house in Covenant Close on July 10, 1767,
and was buried in Greyfriars Churchyard.
His wife, whom he married at Edinburgh on January 3,
1725, was Isabella, third daughter of Sir Donald Macdonald
of Sleat, fourth Baronet. She was born in 1694, and was
therefore three years his senior. Little or nothing is known
of her, except that she survived tiU December 10, 1774.
They had eight children, but only four grew up — three
sons, John, Donald, and Alexander (Secundus), who will be
dealt with later, and a daughter Margaret, who married on
November 24, 1757, James Philp of Greenlaw, advocate.
Judge of the High Court of Admiralty. She died without
issue on April 30, 1802, and her husband predeceased her on
May 1, 1782 aged sixty-six. Two of the other children who
died in infancy were Jean, born June 3, 1729, died May 1,
1731, and Mary, born June 26, 1730.
CHAPTER VI
SIR DONALD MACDONALD OF SLEAT
The Macdonalds of Sleat were a powerful family settled at
the south end of the island of Skye, and after the death in
1498 of John, last Lord of the Isles, the head of the family
became one of the three claimants for the chieftainship of
the clan — a dispute stiU unsettled.
Sir Donald, fourth Baronet, the father of Mrs. Alexander
Monro, was the eldest son of Sir Donald, third Baronet, and
Lady Mary Douglas, younger daughter of Robert, seventh
Earl of Morton. He was a prominent Jacobite, and was
SIR DONALD MACDONALD 79
known among his countrymen as ' Domhnull a Chogaidh '
or ' Donald of the Wars.' At the Revolution, his father
being stiU alive, he took the field with 500 of his clansmen
to join Claverhouse, and conspicuous in a red coat com-
manded a battalion on the left of the Mne at Killiecrankie.
He lost five near relatives in the battle, and by Order of the
Privy Council on January 3, 1690 ^ the rents of the Sleat
property were sequestrated. He succeeded to the baronetcy
on the death of his father on February 5, 1695.
The Grameid, a metrical account of the rising, contains
the following passage relating to Sir Donald, the younger : ^
' Parte alia magni Donaldi clara propago,
Et gentis Princeps et Regulus Aebudarum,
Egregius bello, et florentibus insuper annis,
Orbis ab extremis terrarum Slatius oris,
Acer in arma ruit, secumque ia bella furentes
Aere ciet juvenes quingentos, ensibus omnes
Cominus armatos, rigidisque hastHibus omnes,
Insula quos longis transmisit Skya carinis.'
Which being translated is : 'At another point the noble
scion of great Donald of Sleat, chief of the clan and Lord
of the Isles, illustrious in war beyond his youthful years,
rushes eager to battle from the world's uttermost shores,
and with the trumpet-call summons with him to the fight
500 warriors, all armed with swords hand to hand and with
stout spears, warriors whom the Isle of Skye has sent across
in their long boats.'
Drummond of Balhaldy describes Sir Donald^ as 'con-
ducting all his actions by the strictest rules of rehgion and
morahty. He looked upon his clan as his children, and
upon the King as the father of his cotmtry ; and as he was
possessed of a very opulent fortune, handed down to him
1 Adv. Lib. Pamph., vol. 22, No. 50.
2 By James Philp (Scot. Hist. See), p. 125.
^ Memoirs of Cameron of Lochiel (Abbotsford Club), p. 248.
80 SIR DONALD MACDONALD
by a long race of very noble ancestors, so he lived in the
greatest affluence, but with a wise economy.'
In the early years of the eighteenth century Sir Donald
lived for the most part in Glasgow. During a great flood
on September 23, 1712 ' five fathom of his Lodging at least
is imder Water, but I hope there wiU be no Fear, the House
being strong and 3 Story high.' ^ He was a seatholder in
the Laigh or Tron Kirk.
He came out again in the 1715 at the head of his clan
700 strong, and put himself under the command of the Earl
of Seaforth.2 g^ afterwards joined the Earl of Mar at Perth,
but before the King's troops arrived he had a stroke of
paralysis and was carried home to Skye in a Utter. His
brothers James and WilUam commanded the clan at the
battle of Sheriff muir on November 13, their men forming
part of the Highlanders' right flank, which deUvered the
first attack, and in a few minutes threw the government
troops into confusion. The inconclusive result of the battle,
combined with the news of the defeat at Preston and the
departure of the Old Chevalier to France, disheartened the
Highlanders, and at the beginning of 1716 the Macdonalds
retvo-ned home. Sir Donald himself retired to the island of
Uist when the King's troops were sent to Skye.
He was included in the Act of Attainder, ^ unless he
surrendered in person before June 30, 1716. He wrote to
Lord Cadogan in April offering his submission,^ and was
ordered to come to Fort WiUiam, but by this time his health
was so bad that he could not make the journey, and asked to
be excused. In June he crossed from Uist to his own house
at Duntulm at the north end of Skye, where he stayed till the
middle of September, and was then carried by stages to his
brother's house at Knock near the south of the island.
1 Scots Courant, September 26, 1712.
2 Memoirs of the 1715 hy the Master of Sinclair (Abbotsford Club), p. 254.
' 1 Greorge I. c. 42. * AmisUm Session Papers (folio). Adv. Lib., ii. 56.
SIR DONALD MACDONALD 81
His surrender to the government was an act of lip-service
only, for on December 23, 1716 he was granted by the Old
Chevalier a patent of nobility under the title of Lord Sleat
in consideration of the services of himself and his father ;
and on February 4, 1717 he wrote to James at Avignon : ^
' Though the views I had of happiness under your reign
were blasted by the necessity of your departure, yet the
accoimt of your safe arrival in France gave me the greatest
joy. The misfortune of a continued sickness since the begin-
ning of that glorious effort for dehvering our comitry forced
me to remain at home, exposed to the will and pleasure of a
power which has not hitherto showed the least inclination to
mercy. 'But I assiu-e yoiu" Majesty that I and my family shall
be ready on aU occasions to serve you to the utmost of our
power, and I can promise the same duty and allegiance from
my son which has always been practised by his predecessors.'
In Jvily 1717 Sir Donald was carried to his own castle
of Armadale, where he died on March 1, 1718.
He married his cousin Mary, daughter of Donald Mac-
donald of Castleton, and left one son — Donald, born 1697,
matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, November 7, 1712:
he succeeded to the baronetcy, which seems not to have been
forfeited, and died luimarried in 1720 — and four daughters
— (1) Mary, born 1692, died immarried ; (2) Margaret, born
1693, married Captain John Macqueen, and was the mother
of Mrs. George Inghs of Redhall; (3) Isabella (Mrs. Monro),
born 1694; (4) Janet, born 1700, married in December 1724
Norman Macleod, nineteenth laird of Macleod.
As Sir Donald's submission was deemed by the House
of Lords to be incomplete, ^ his estates were forfeited, and
sold by the Commissioners for £21,000 to Mr. Kenneth
Mackenzie, advocate.^
1 Hist. MSS. Com., ' Stuart Papers at Windsor,' iiL 343, 513.
2 House of Lords Appeals (Adv. Lib.), 1719-1724, No. 22.
Adv. Lib. Pamphlets, vol. 14.
L
82 SIR DONALD MACDONALD
His widow and children were left portionless, but Parlia-
ment, on her petition, gave the King power to allow the
daughters' provisions to remain secured on the estates in
spite of the attainder. ^ They amounted to about £400
sterling each.
Lady Macdonald afterwards married Alexander Mac-
donald of Boisdale, and had two sons and three daughters.^
The arms of Macdonald of Sleat are recorded in the
manuscript of Stacie, who was Ross Herald from 1663 to
1687 ^ — first, argent, a lion rampant gules armed or ; second,
azure, a hand proper holding a cross patee of calvary sable ;
third, vert, a ship ermine, her oars in saltire sable in water
proper ; fourth, parted per fess wavy vert and argent a salmon
naiant : crest, a hand holding a dagger proper : supporters,
two leopards proper : motto, ' My hope is constant in thee.'
1 6 George i. c. 24 ; Register of the Privy Seal (English), vii. 421.
2 The Clan Donald, iii. 293.
^ Stoddart, Scottish Arms, ii. 286; Scottish Armorial Seals, W. R. Macdonald,
No. 1807.
CHAPTER VII
JOHN MONRO OF AUCHINBOWIE, ADVOCATE
John Monro, eldest son of Dr. Alexander Monro (Primus),
was born on November 5, 1725. He received his early
education at Mr. Mundell's school in Edinburgh, and was
admitted an advocate on July 24, 1753 at the age of twenty-
seven. He had a fair practice,^ and on January 21, 1758
he was appointed Procurator Fiscal or Crown Prosecutor
in the High Court of Admiralty on the nomination of the
Judge, his brother-in-law James Philp, and on several occa-
sions in 1762 during the Judge's absence he filled his place
on the bench. From 1760 to 1769 he was one of the group
of advocates who reported and pubhshed the decisions of the
Court of Session. He was a member of the Select Society.
On July 8, 1757 he married Sophia, daughter of the
deceased Archibald IngUs of Auchindinny, Midlothian, and
Langbjrres, Lanarkshire, the eldest of three co-heiresses, and
his father made over to him the estate of Auchinbowie,
reserving to himself an annuity of 1200 merks, which was
not to run until the annuity payable to Mrs. Alexander
Monro, his cousin's widow, had lapsed.
At first Mr. and Mrs. John Monro lived with old Mrs.
Inglis and her other two daughters at a small house in Milne's
Court on the north side of the Lawnmarket, but he soon had
to move the whole establishment to a larger house at the
Cross, and latterly his town house was the second flat of a
tenement on the south side of the Lawnmarket between
1 Morison, Dictionary of Decisions, 7289, 7612, 7637, 13435, 13530, 14272.
84 JOHN MONRO OF AUCHINBOWIE
Gosford's Close and Libberton's Wynd.^ This house, which
contained eleven ' fire-rooms ' and two ' outer-rooms,' was
bought by his father in 1730 and was made over to him in
1750.2 At his death it was valued at £600 ; and at that
time he also owned a house in Covenant Close — no doubt
his father's old house — worth £250, a shop and warehouse
worth £360, and ' Lady Mary Carnegie's house ' worth £150.^
John Monro lost his wife on April 21, 1775 at the early
age of thirty-four.
He forced a sale of Langbyres in 1780, and a division of
Auchindinny in 1781, and received as his share in right of
his wife the mansion-house and ground roimd it, which he
at once sold for £3510 to Captain John Inglis, R.N., who
was married to Barbara, the youngest of the three co-
heiresses.
He had two daughters, Jane and Isabella, but the dates
of their births cannot be discovered. It is to be noticed that
each of the three brothers Monro — John, Donald, and
Alexander — had a daughter Isabella, named of course after
her grandmother.
He died on Sxmday May 24, 1789 at the age of sixty-three,
and as he had made no wiU, Auchinbowie was divided be-
tween the two daughters after an arbitration before the
SoHcitor-General, Robert Blair; Jane, as the elder, taking
the mansion-house and the north-west half, which is now
divided into two farms, and Isabella the south-east half of
the property. The rental of each share was calculated to be
£207, but as John Monro had left considerable debts, there
was a bond for £2000 placed on each half.
Jane Moneo had married at Auchinbowie on November
21, 1785 George Home of Argaty, near Doune, Perthshire.
1 Edinburgh Courant, December 23, 1767.
2 Burgh-Sasines, Irvine, August 17, 1730.
3 Books of C. and S., January 17, 1791 (C. G.).
MRS. GEORGE HOME OF ARGATY
(jane MONRO OF AUCHINBOWIE)
THE HOMES OF ARGATY 85
She was his second wife, but her predecessor, Mary Erskine
Rollo, daughter of James Paterson of Bannockburn, left no
family.
George Home was really a Stewart, as his grandmother,
Mary Hoome or Home of Argaty, had married George Stewart
of BaUochallan,^ and had several sons, two of whom succeeded
in turn to Argaty,^ — David, who entailed the estate in 1768
and died without issue on November 9, 1774, and George,
who had settled as a doctor at Annapolis, Maryland. Dr.
George Home Stewart died at Argaty on June 13, 1784 in
his seventy-seventh year, and was succeeded by his eldest
son, George, Jane Monro's husband, who dropped the sur-
name of Stewart.
George Home died on October 5, 1787, leaving an only
child, Sophia, born August 5 of that year. She was married
at Edinburgh on August 9, 1803 to her mother's first cousin,
David Monro Biiming of Softlaw, yovmger son of Dr.
Alexander Monro (Secundus), and died at Madeira on
May 29, 1806 at the age of eighteen, having had two sons,
who wUl be mentioned later in connection with their father.^
Jane Monro (Mrs, Home) survived her daughter for nearly
thirty years, and died at 16 Great Stuart Street, Edinburgh,
on December 26, 1835, when she must have been about
seventy-seven years of age.* 'Gram,' or 'Lady Home,' as
she was called, was an old lady of great force of character.
At the time of the French invasion scare she raised a troop of
Yeomanry among her tenants and neighbours, her son-in-law
being captain, and she marched with them to a review in
Edinburgh.
Her picture hangs at Auchinbowie.
Her sister, Isabella Monro, married at Auchinbowie
1 Courant, December 20 and 24, 1750.
* Morison, Dictionary, 4649 ; Campbell, Session Papers (Adv. Lib.), kv. 72.
2 Chap. xii. • Caledonian Mercury, January 7, 1836.
86 THE LOWISES OF PLEAN
on February 23, 1789 Captain Ninian Lowis, R.N., of the
Woodcote East Indiaman, and laird of West Plean, the
adjoining property to the east. Mrs. Lowis died on
August 31, 1814 at 28 George Square, Edinburgh, and Captain
Lowis died on March 27, 1825. Their family consisted of
three sons and four daughters.^
1. Robert, the eldest son, married (1) Margaret, daughter
of David Hunter, stockbroker, London, and sister of the
second Mrs. Alexander Monro (Tertius) ; (2) Helen, daughter
of Adam Maitland of Dundrennan and sister of Lord Dun-
drennan, the judge ; (3) Jane Liston. He had no family. He
died in 1856, and was biuried at St. Cuthbert's, Edrnbiu'gh.
2. John, bom in 1801, was in the Bengal Civil Service,
and rose to a seat on the Viceroy's Council. He married in
1823 Louisa, daughter of John Fendall of the Bengal Civil
Service, and had five sons and five daughters.
3. Ninian, born in 1802, married Jane, daughter of Colonel
Reynolds of the Bengal Army. He and his wife and family
were lost at sea in 1838.
Of the daughters three died unmarried, and Anne married
the Rev. George Wermelskirk, with issue.
^ Mackenzie's History of the Munros, p. 318.
CHAPTER VIII
DR. DONALD MONRO
Donald, second son of Alexander Monro {Primus), was born
at Edinburgh on January 15, 1728. He was sent with his
brothers to Mr. Mundell's school at Edinburgh, and then
entered the University to be educated for a medical career.
He took his degree as Doctor of Medicine on June 8,
1753, and afterwards went to settle in London. He was there
admitted a licentiate of the Royal CoUege of Physicians on
April 12, 1756, and on November 3, 1758 was elected a
physician to St. George's Hospital.
On December 3, 1760, during the Seven Years' War,
when Britain and Frederick n. of Prussia were united against
France, Dr. Donald Monro received a commission as
physician to the hospital for the British forces in Germany,^
and he remained abroad tiU March 1763. His work received
special encouragement from Duke Ferdinand of Bavaria and
General the Marquis of Granby.^ He retired as Physician
General to the Army on half-pay of ten shillings a day, and
settled down to private practice at Jermjm Street, London.
He was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society on May 1,
1766, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians speciali
gratia on September 30, 1771.^ He was Censor of the College
in 1772, 1781, 1785 and 1789, and was named an Elect on
July 10, 1788. He delivered the Croonian lectures in 1774
and 1775, and the Harveian oration in 1775.
1 Home Office Papers, i. No. 61. ^ European Magazine, 1782, ii. 357.
' Munk, Boll of the Royal College of Physicians, ii. 293.
88 DR. DONALD MONRO
His principal publications were : Observations on the
Means of preserving the Health of Soldiers, 1780, and a treatise
in 4 vols, on Medical and Pharmaceutical Chemistry and
Materia Medica, 1788. He also contributed articles to the
Edinburgh Essays Physical and Literary, and wrote a memoir
of his father for the collected edition of the latter' s works
published in 1782 by his brother [Secundus).
Dr. Donald Monro is said to have been ' a man of varied
attainments and of considerable skill in his profession, and
was highly esteemed by his contemporaries.' In 1786,
having long been in iU-health, he resigned his office at St.
George's Hospital, and withdrew himself altogether from
practice and in great measure from society.
He died at Argyle Street, London, on June 9, 1802 aged
seventy-four.^
He had married on August 29, 1772, at St. James's Picca-
dilly, Dorothea Maria Heineken, a German Lady-in-waiting
to Queen Charlotte, who survived him. They had an only
child, Isabella Margaret, ^ who married Colonel John Scott,
H.E.I.C.S., third son of John Scott of Gala, and younger
brother of the Colonel Hugh Scott who married her jSrst
cousin Isabella, daughter of Dr. Alexander Monro [Secundus).
Colonel and Mrs. John Scott had three daughters : (1) Maria
Georgiana, who took the name of Makdougall on succeeding
to the estate of Makerstoun, Roxburghshire, and died un-
married ; (2) Lisette, who married William Gregory, Professor
of Chemistry at Edinburgh, and left one son ; (3) Isabella,
who died immarried.
Colonel John Scott died in 1822, and his wife died at the
Cape of Good Hope on June 28, 1814.
1 Oentleman's Magazine, 1802, p. 687 ; 1772, p. 439.
2 Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Register ' Kenyon,' fol. 560.
\ij':xAXJ.»KH ^ll<)^■^^o, yvu k k.s. k.
CHAPTER IX
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {SECUNDUS)
Alexander Monro (Secundus), the tliird and youngest
son of Professor Alexander Monro {Primus), was born at
Edinburgh on May 20, 1733. He was sent with his brothers
to Mr. Mundell's school, where he learned the rudiments of
Latin and Greek, and showed early evidences of great abiHty.
Among his school-feUows were Hay Campbell, afterwards
Lord President of the Court of Session, and WiUiam Ramsay
of Barnton, the banker.
His father designed to make him his successor, and
realising the importance of a broad basis of education he
sent him to the University, when he was about twelve years
old, to attend the ordinary course of philosophy before
beginning his professional training. He studied mathe-
matics under the great Maclaurin and ethics luider Sir John
Pringle, and was a great favourite of Dr. Matthew Stewart,
Professor of Experimental Philosophy, to whose instruction
he imputed the reputation which he afterwards gained as a
close and logical lecturer.
He had already shown a taste for anatomy, and after
entering on his medical course in his eighteenth year, he
soon became a useful assistant to his father in the dissecting
room. He attended the lectures of Drs. Rutherford,
Plummer, Alston and Sinclair. ' He possessed an insatiable
thirst for medical knowledge, an uncommon share of perse-
verance, and a very good memory, for the cultivation of
M
90 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {8ECUNDUS)
which he had been very much indebted to the excellent
discipline of his mother.' ^
In the session 1753-4 his father foiind his class too large
for the lecture-room, and was compelled to divide it and
to repeat his lectiire in the evening. He soon found the task
too heavy, and tried the experiment of allowing his son to
take the evening class. As the result was most satisfactory,
he presented a petition to the Town Council at the close of the
session, asking that his son might be formally appointed his
colleague and successor. The prayer was granted on June 19,
1754, and Secundus was admitted conjunct professor on
July 11.2
The narrative of the Town Council minute is interesting,
and the opening argumentum ad crumenam is not without
guile. 2
' Anent the petition and representation given in by
Alexander Monro, professor of Anatomy in the University of
Edinburgh, setting forth, that the advantages of the schools
of physic to Edinburgh are now generally known ; for, besides
the youth being well educated, ten thousand pounds sterling
at least are spent yearly by the students of that science, of
whom there have been more than two hundred for many
years past at Edinburgh. The foundation upon which the
other branches of physic must be built is the anatomy, which,
therefore, ought to be taught diligently by a master equal
to the task. The present professor of Anatomy is allowed to
have been diligent, and to have contributed to the establish-
ment of the medical schools, being the first who began to
teach regularly, has continued thirty-five years to do so,
and is willing to teach while he has strength. But his business
requiring great labour, in the course of nature he must become
unable to undergo it in no great number of years. In the
prospect of this, and with a view of supporting the character
1 Memoir, by Monro (Tertius), p. iii. ^ Editiburgh Courant, July 15, 1754.
3 Bower, History of the University, ii. 369-72.
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (SECUNDUS) 91
of the schools of physic, the petitioner thought it his duty to
represent to his honourable patrons, that a person fit for this
ofiice ought to be otherwise a good scholar, to be fuUy master
of his busmess, by being early initiated in it, with elocution,
or an easy way of conveying his knowledge to others : That
the acquisition of so much knowledge of an extensive science
as a teacher ought to have, cannot be obtained without some
neglect of the other branches ; and, therefore, a prospect of
suitable advantage from that one branch must be given, to
induce any person to bestow more time and pains on it than
on others : That the professor must attribute his early
success at least to the assurance he had, when very young,
and a student, that he was soon to be put into his present
office, which made him apply more particularly to anatomy,
' That the professor's youngest son has appeared to his
father, for some years past, to have the qualifications neces-
sary for a teacher ; and this winter he has given proof, by
not only dissecting all the course for his father, but by pre-
lecting in most of it : That he is already equal to the office ;
for testimony of which it is entreated that inquiry might be
made at the numerous students who were present at his
lectures and demonstrations. It was therefore hoped the
Honourable Magistrates and Council would appoint the
young man his father's colleague and successor in their
University, as not only the surest way of having the labour
of an old servant the longer continued, but Mkewise of having
an absolutely necessary branch of physic well taught. That,
if the desire of the petition was granted, the education of the
young professor should be directed, with a view to that
business, under the best masters in Exu-ope. He should
have all his father's papers, books, instruments, and pre-
parations, with aU the assistance his father can give in teach-
ing, while he is fit for labour.'
The petition was accompanied by certificates of proficiency
from the professors of Latin, Greek, philosophy and mathe-
92 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (SEGUNDUS)
matics as well as from the medical faculty, and also by testi-
monials from a great number of students who had attended
his lectures and demonstrations.
Monro {Secundus) took his degree as Doctor of Medicine
on October 20, 1755 : his thesis was dedicated to his father
in the following terms : ^ — ' Quum nemo sit, cui plus debeam,
aut placere mahm, quern cariorem habeam, aut aemulari
praetulerim, qui adulatione minus egeat, observantiam magis
mereatur : tibi, Pater, Praeceptor Optime, Filius, Discipulus,
Studiorum Aemulus, Dissertationem hancce, animi monu-
mentum grati, dicatum accipias precor.'
In fulfilment of his father's promise he then proceeded
to his studies abroad. He spent a short time in London,
where he attended the lectures of Dr. William Himter ; but
his chief object in staying there was to make acquaintance
with various medical men of note. He next visited Paris,
and on September 17, 1757 entered Leyden University,
where he formed a warm friendship with the two famous
anatomists, Bernardus Siegfriedus Albinus and Petrus Camper.
But his foreign studies were principally prosecuted at
Berhn, where he worked under the celebrated Professor
Meckel, in whose house he lived ; and in after years he never
let a session pass without acknowledging his debt to him.
He spent some time in Edinburgh during the early months
of 1757 in order to fill the place of his father, who was con-
fined to the house by illness ; and he finally retiu-ned from
Berlin in the early summer of 1758. He was admitted a
licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
on May 2, 1758, and a Fellow on May 1, 1759.
His father delivered the opening lectures of the 1758-9
course, and then handed over the work to his son. The
yovm.g professor made a dramatic beginning by attacking
Leeuwenhoek's theory of the blood, which his father had
taught.
^ Dr. Andrew Duncan, Harveian Oration (1818), p. 15.
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {SECUNDUS) 93
One of his original pupils, Dr. James Carmichael-Smyth,
whose daughter married Monro's elder son, wrote fifty years
later : ^
' The novelty of a doctrine of so much importance in
all physiological and pathological reasoning, with the clear
and luminous manner in which it was explained, operated
like an electric shock on the audience, and gained him a
degree of confidence, which I beheve no young man ever
had at starting, but which his talents were well calcxilated
to support. The students could not help observing that he
was complete master of his subject ; and that he possessed
in an eminent degree another talent no less necessary for
a pubUc teacher, — the proper mode of communicating his
own knowledge to others.'
Dr. Robertson of Northampton, another early pupil,
speaks^ of 'that copious stream of information, medical,
surgical, physiological and pathological, that flowed from
him almost without art or effort.' He continues : ' By aU
who heard him, the value of his lectures will be long remem-
bered. His eloquence was of an unusual sort : while appar-
ently it aimed at no display, it told most effectively : lucid,
impressive and earnest, it had what might be called paternal
simplicity and gravity, which chained the attention of his
youthful audience, and removed his addresses, both as to
maimer and matter, to an immeasiurable distance from the
more beaten track of common academic instruction. Though
his usual style of elocution was grave, dignified, and remark-
able for its calnmess, there were occasional striking exceptions,
viz. : when topics of controversy or peculiar interest came
imder discussion.'
Topham, an English visitor to Edinburgh in the winter
of 1774-5, writes : ^ ' Dr. Monro has all the advantages of a
great Orator, full of strength and force in his expression,
roimd and manly in his periods, emphatical and bold in his
1 Memoir, xiv. ^ /j^ yy_ 3 Topfiam's Letters, p. 215.
94 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO [SECUNDUS)
manner of delivery : he particularly avoids that famiUarity
which too many of the Professors are apt to fall into in their
lectm^es, and which seems to degrade their dignity by giving
them the air of common conversation.'
The only discordant note is struck by Sir Astley Cooper,
the famous London surgeon, who visited Edinburgh as a
young man in 1787-8, and recorded his impressions : ^ ' Old
Monro grunted like a pig. He was a tolerable lect\irer,
possessed a full knowledge of his subject, had much sagacity
in practice, was laudably zealous, but was much given to
self and to the abuse of others.'
The next sentence throws light on this criticism : Cooper
had produced two surgical instruments, which he claimed
to have invented, but the Professor showed that he had
already used similar ones. The originality of his discoveries
was a point upon which Monro was undoubtedly sensitive ; on
the other hand it is to be noted that in after-years Cooper
dedicated one of his works to Monro in laudatory terms.
As to his lecturing Tertius says : ^ ' He never used notes,
and indeed possessed for many years heads only of his lectures.
In consequence of the great extent of his memory, and his
intimate acquaintance with the varied subjects of which he
treated, and probably also from the very rapid advance-
ment he made, at the very outset of his career, as a physician
and consulting surgeon, he never had had leisure to write
out fuUy any one lecture. During fifteen years he lect\ired
from heads of his lectures, the arrangement of which he
repeatedly altered, perspicuity being his first and great
object of attainment. He was at length relieved from this
embarrassment by purchasing from Mr. John Thorburn,
who became his pupil in 1775, a copy of his own lectures. . . .
He was totally devoid of conceit, and unhke many professors
who have lectured for nearly half a century, did not remain
satisfied with the lectures he had written at the beginning
* Life of Sir Astley Cooper, B. B. Cooper, i. 171. - Memoir, viii.
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (SECUNDUS) 95
of his career. On the contrary he was in the constant habit
of altering and improving them.' ^
Bower says that he constantly employed his mechanical
genius in inventing and improving surgical instruments. ^
Dr. James Gregory, his colleague as professor and as
practitioner, wrote : ^ ' His life was distinguished by no
striking event — it was chequered by no vicissitudes of good
and evil : it was a Hfe, from early youth to extreme old age,
of almost vmiform and vininterrupted prosperity. Nay, he
seems scarce to have felt any of those difl&culties and dis-
comragements in his splendid career, which most men of
literary professions, but especially physicians, experience in
their laborious progress to the highest honours and rewards
to which they can aspire ; and certainly his progress never
was retarded by any such adverse circumstances.'
For forty years he discharged imaided the work of the
professorship, which covered surgery as well as anatomy :
in 1798 he secured the appointment of his son Alexander
(Tertius) as his colleague, and after 1800 he used to open
the course and leave his son to finish it.
Quite early in his career an agitation for a separate chair
of Surgery began to gain ground, and was supported by the
Incorporation of Surgeons.* It was felt that the subject
could not be adequately treated as a mere appendage to
anatomy, especially as Monro himself was bound as a member
of the CoUege of Physicians to confine himself to medical
practice. 5 In point of fact he regidarly performed minor
operations, but unlike his father undertook no clinical
lectures, which would bring him into touch with recent
surgery.
Mr. James Rae, who was appointed by the Managers in
' Memoir, cli. ^ History of the University of Edinburgh, ii. 373. * Memoir, ix.
* Additional Hints respecting the Improvement of Medical Education in Edinburgh,
John Thomson, 1826.
' Scottish Universities Commission, Evidence, pubUshed 1837, p. 274.
96 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (SECUNDU8)
1766 to be one of the four ' substitute ' or assistant surgeons
of the Infirmary, began a course of lectures at Surgeons'
Hall on systematic surgery, and three years later, at the
request of the students, backed by the Incorporation, he
obtained the leave of the Infirmary Managers to give a
clinical course. He conducted both classes for several
years, and in May 1777 induced the Royal CoUege of Surgeons
(as the Incorporation had by this time become) to frame a
petition to the Crown for the creation of a professorship of
Surgery in the University, and to suggest himself as a suit-
able nominee.^
Secundus had felt the coming storm, and had taken
measures in defence. The Surgeons promptly got an answer
from Lord Advocate Henry Dundas to the effect ' that it
is not in his power to interfere in behalf of this application,
as he has many months since received a letter from the
Principal and medical Professors of the University requesting
that, if an apphcation should be made for the creation of a
professorship of Surgery in Edinbiu-gh, he would represent
to His Majesty's ministers that, in the opinion of the Uni-
versity, and particularly of the medical part, the creation of
such a professorship was useless, and would be very improper.'
In opposing this necessary reform it does not appear that
Monro was actuated by any higher motive than a jealous
regard for his own dignity, but his personal influence gave
him the victory. He carried the war into the enemy's
country by appl5dng to the Town Council for a new com-
mission expressly bearing him to be Professor of Surgery as
well as of Anatomy ; this having only been implied in his
former commission. The magistrates ' being highly sensible
of the great merit of Dr. Monro and the singular use he has
been of to this University ' unanimously granted his request
on July 16, 1777, but they admitted the principle of the
reformers' case by inserting a clause which reserved right to
1 Edinburgh Atiatomical School, Sir John Strutters, pp. 86, 87.
PKOFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (SECUNDUS) 97
them to appoint a separate professor of Surgery after his
death.
Monro was thus secured against official rivals for the
rest of his career, but he could not prevent private teachers
from attracting large classes. In 1779 Mr. John Aitken
began to lecture on anatomy and surgery among other sub-
jects,^ but his first rival of importance was John Bell, who
started lecturing in 1787 on siirgery and midwifery under
the auspices of the Royal CoUege of Surgeons, and soon
attracted large numbers. His work was continued from 1800
to 1804 by his brother, afterwards Sir Charles Bell. Dr.
John Barclay also taught anatomy from 1797 till 1825, and
after BeU's departure was well attended.
Almost the only other difficulties with which Monro had
to contend were the constant problem of procuring bodies
for dissection, and the circulation in 1773 of a disgusting
report that he was in the habit of returning to a vintner the
spirits in which his specimens had been preserved. The
latter diffictdty was removed by a letter to the newspapers ; ^
the former was much more serious, and continued through-
out his career.
By Act of Parliament ^ it had been since 1752 a regular
part of the death sentence on a criminal in Scotland ' that
his body be handed over to Dr. Monro for dissection ' ; and
bodies thus obtained were the only ' subjects ' which even
the Professor of Anatomy might legally have in his posses-
sion for the necessary purposes of his professorship. At no
time did this supply meet even the Professor's own require-
ments for demonstrations at his lectures ; still less was it
sufficient for the needs of the students, for whom systematic
dissections were the very foimdation of their education ; and
as teachers multiphed and classes grew in numbers the
problem became increasingly difficult.
1 Edinburgh Advertiser, April 27, 1779.
- Edinburgh Courant, November 6, 1773. ^ 25 Gfeo. n. cap. 37.
N
98 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {SECUNDU8)
The association of dissection with crime thus brought it
into popular odium, and made pubHc institutions and private
persons, having lawful possession of bodies, imwiUing to part
with them for this purpose, even if it had not been illegal for
them to do so. Not merely was it illegal in itself to buy
or sell a body even for scientific purposes, but where there
was any suspicion of crime, the possessor of the body was
presumed to have been concerned in the crime.
Under these circumstances there was no option for teachers
and students of anatomy but to have clandestine resort to
the ' resurrection-men,' criminals of the lowest t3rpe, who
carried on a regular trade of exhuming bodies with the
connivance of the graveyard authorities. The high price
paid for ' subjects,' averaging about £10, also called into
existence a brisk import trade mainly from London and
Ireland, the bodies being smuggled into Edinburgh under
various devices to elude the revenue authorities.
Sir Astley Cooper said in his evidence before the Select
Committee of 1828 with reference to these revolting
practices : ' It is distressing to men of education and
character to be compelled to resort, for their means of teach-
ing, to a constant infraction of the laws, and to be made
dependent for their professional existence on the mercenary
caprices of the most abandoned class in the community.' ^
The popular attitude towards anatomy is reflected in
Bums' s lines :
' Critics ! appall'd I venture on the name,
Those cut-throat bandits in the paths of fame,
Bloody dissectors, worse than ten Monros ;
He hacks to teach, they mangle to expose/ ^
The lectures seem to have been semi-public : Lord
Brougham and Lord Campbell both mention having attended
them ; and the story is told of a small boy who had made
1 Report, p. 18. ^ y^g pggfg Progress, 1789.
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (SECUNDUS) 99
his way in while the body of an old woman was being dis-
sected, and suddenly cried out : ' Ey, it 's granny ; I ken
her by her taes.'
In spite of competition the attendance of regular students
steadily increased. In a document deposited in a bottle
below the foundation stone of the new anatomical theatre
the Professor stated that from 1759 to 1790 8369 students
had attended his lectures,^ and gave the yearly averages
for the decennial periods as follows : 1761-70 194, 1771-80
287, 1781-90 342. For 1791-1800 the average was 313.
The high- water mark was reached in 1783, when the class
numbered 436 ; the following year it was 403, but it never
again exceeded 400.
In October 1807 he drew up a memorandum ^ stating that
13,404 students had passed through his hands, of whom
5831, or nearly two-fifths, came from England, Ireland, or
foreign countries.
The Professor's salary was raised from £15 to £50 in 1798,
the additional £35 being charged upon the City's ale and beer
tax : the students' fees remained at three guineas.
In 1764 he had obtained leave to buUd a new theatre at
a cost of £300, which he himself advanced on an obligation
by the Town Council to repay the money by instalments.^
With the exception of the library it was at that time the only
room in the University that had ' any degree of academical
decency.'
By 1783 the class had increased so much that he had to
get a gallery erected.* A few years later the new Uni-
versity buildings in Nicolson Street were begun, and on
March 31, 1790 Professor Monro laid the foundation stone
^ Medical Commentaries, xv. 40.
^ Annals of the Parish of Colinlan, Dr. Thos. Murray, p. 136.
3 Dalzel, History of Edinhurgh University, ii. 434 ; Edinburgh Advertiser, September
11, 1764; Scots Magazine, 1764, p. 518.
* Scots Magazine, 1783, p. 714.
100 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {SECUNDUS)
of the anatomical school and rooms, which were opened
by him at the beginning of the winter session of 1792.
Monro's writings were numerous : most of the early ones
were contributions to the Essays and Observations, Physical
and Literary, or controversial pamphlets. He was a hard
hitter, especially if he detected any shght upon his profes-
sional reputation, as witness his controversies with Dr.
WiUiam Hunter. Another instance may be cited.
A certain Scottish nobleman fell ill in 1795, and was
attended by Dr. John Goodsir of Largo, father of the pro-
fessor who succeeded Monro (Tertius) in the chair of Anatomy.
Dr. Goodsir for his own satisfaction wrote a fuU report of the
case to Professor Monro, who confirmed the diagnosis and
treatment. The patient's health improved, and he then
went up to London, where he was taken iU again and con-
sulted Sir Walter Farquhar and Sir George Baker, who told
him that he had not suffered at all from the complaint for
which Dr. Goodsir had treated him. His lordship communi-
cated this opinion to Dr. Goodsir, who then disclosed the
fact that he was backed by Dr. Monro's advice, and Monro
himself took up the cudgels. He wrote to the noble patient
maintaining that the London physicians were not in a position
to judge of his previous illness, as they had not seen him at
the time, and he finishes the letter thus :
' It is plain that their assertion could have no proper
foundation, miless you were to suppose, as they affect to do,
that they must possess a superiority of skill proportion'd
to the size of the city they live in. If they really acted the
part I have heard they did, I cannot help regretting that it
is not in the power of the King to bestow Candour along with
a Title.' 1
In 1783 Monro published his Observations on the Struc-
ture and Functions of the Nervous System. This was a folio
volume illustrated with fifty-five copper-plate engravings.
' Correspondence in possession of Emeritus- Professor John Chiene.
PKOFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (SECUNDUS) 101
It was dedicated to Lord Advocate Dundas, and was pub-
lished at two guineas by William Creech, who claimed that
it was the most splendid work that had ever been produced
from the Scottish press. ^ It is the description in this book
of the commmiication between the lateral ventricles of the
brain that has made the ' foramen Monroi ' familiar to every
student of medicine.
Professor Monro pubhshed in 1785 The Structure and
Physiology of Fishes explained and compared with those of Man
and other Animals, and in 1788 A Description of the Bursce
Mucosae, of the Human Body. These works were also in foho,
and were illustrated with fine engravings. His last impor-
tant publication was a quarto volume, issued in 1797, and
consisting of three treatises on The Brain, the Eye, and the
Ear.
His work as professor did not prevent him from conduct-
ing a very large practice as a physician ; and he was often
consulted in surgical cases. The opinions which he gave to
his patients were expressed in simple and direct language —
a habit which distinguished him and Benjamin Bell from the
other practitioners of the time.^ He was a great behever in
vaccination, and wrote in 1801 : ^ ' It is certainly httle less
than criminal to expose helpless children to the attack of
so terrible and fatal a malady as the smallpox, when it may
be readily avoided.'
Dr. James Gregory says that he long and most deservedly
enjoyed the highest eminence which any man of the medical
profession ever attained in Scotland, and that for nearly
half a century as a practical physician he was unquestionably
at the head of his profession in Edinbiu-gh and in Scotland : *
and Principal Sir Alexander Grant says : ^ ' Though he
belonged to an era of great men in the University, and
1 Edinburgh Advertiser, April 22, 1783. ^ Life of Benjamin Bell, B. Bell, p. 113.
' Scots Magazine, 1801, p. 583. * Memoir, ix.
^ Story of the University of Edinburgh, ii. 388.
102 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (SECUNDUS)
had as colleagues in the Medical Faculty Cullen, Black, the
Gregorys, the Rutherfords, the Homes, John and Charles
Hope, and Dr. Duncan senior, he was acknowledged by all
as their head.'
His eminence was fully recognised abroad, and he was
admitted a member of many learned societies, including the
Academies of Paris, Madrid, Berlin and Moscow.
In the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh he was
elected Censor in 1770 and 1771, Secretary from 1772 to 1778,
President from 1779 to 1781, and Vice-President in 1782
and 1783.
He took the office of secretary jointly with David Hume
in the Philosophical Society at its second resuscitation about
1760, and after Hume went to France in 1763 he acted as
sole secretary for twenty years. The Society languished,
although its meetings were never altogether discontinued,
untU in 1768 Henry Home, Lord Kames, was elected president
and succeeded in stimulating renewed activity, one of the
results of which was a third volume of Essays and Observations,
published in 1771.^ Monro as secretary was the responsible
editor, and contributed three articles. At length in 1783
the Society, adopting a proposal of Principal Robertson,
obtained incorporation by Royal Charter under the title
of ' The Royal Society of Edinburgh.' Monro was elected
to the original CouncU, and was one of the presidents of the
physical section in 1790 : he wrote three papers for volume iii.
of the Transactions.
On April 20, 1771 he was elected an honorary member
of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh,^ which was
founded in 1734 by students, and incorporated by Royal
Charter in 1778 — a distinct institution from the older Medical
Society which Monro {Primus) helped to found in 1731.
On Jmie 24, 1794 Professor Monro was asked by the
^ Tytler, Memoirs of Eamea, i. 184.
" History of the Roijal Medical Society, 1820.
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {SECUNDUS) 103
Physical Society, another students' association, of which he
was an honorary member, to lay the foundation stone of their
hall in Richmond Street, Hunter's Park.^ The Society was
instituted in 1771, and had been recently incorporated by
the Magistrates : in 1782 it was amalgamated with the
Chirurgo-Medical Society, and in 1788 it received a Royal
Charter. It was one of the features of the Society that half
of the debates were conducted in Latin, so as to prepare the
members for their graduation trials.
In 1785 Professor Monro gave some anatomical specimens
to the Royal Society,^ towards a collection which was being
formed in the College museum and was in 1852 taken over
by Government as part of the National Museum of Natural
History in Chambers Street. In 1800 he presented to the
University his private collection with a descriptive catalogue,
in compliance with a promise made so long before as December
19, 1764,^ This was a valuable property at a time when it
was very difficidt to obtain subjects, and Sir Charles Bell
alleged that Monro was so jealous of his museum that a sight
of it could only be obtained by stratagem.^
The Professor took his share in the pubHc life of his native
place ; for instance he was one of the commissioners appointed
by the Act of 1771 ^ ' for cleansing, lighting and watching the
South Side of the City of Edinburgh,' the earliest burgh police
statute introduced into Scotland.
Notwithstanding his manifold exertions he remained fresh
and active until he was well over seventy. After delivering
the opening lecture of the 1808 course he resigned his chair,
gave up private practice, and spent the remaining nine years
of his life in retirement.
^ Edhihurgh Advertiser, June 25, 1784.
2 Edinburgh Courant, August 6, 1785.
' Dalzel, History of the University, ii. 434.
* Piohot, Ufe of Sir Charles Bell, p. 221.
'11 George in. cap. 36.
104 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (SECUNDUS)
As to his character his son says : ^ ' He was extremely
economical in the arrangement of his time, and allotted to
each hour its particular business ; and he worked very nearly
as hard towards the decline as at the outset of life, . . .
Dr. Monro was of a very cheerful turn of mind, and fond of
society, to the hilarity of which he most essentially con-
tributed by the numerous anecdotes, which he took great
dehght in communicating.
' He lived at a time when the literature of Scotland had
been raised to a high pitch of eminence by his contemporaries,
with all of whom he lived in habits of intimacy.'
Dr. Andrew Duncan, addressing the Harveian Society, a
club formed to unite experimental inquiry with conviviaHty,
said : ^ ' No man could enjoy to a higher degree, or more suc-
cessfully lead others to enjoy, innocent mirth over a social
glass. This has often been demonstrated to most of you in
the room in which we now meet. . . . Without transgressing
the bounds of the most strict sobriety, he afforded us demon-
strative evidence of the exhilarating power of wine.'
His chief pleasures were the theatre and his garden. He
was a constant attendant at the play, both comedy and
tragedy. When Foote and his company were playing The
Devil upon Two Sticks, he lent his own red gown to Weston,
who was taking the part of ' Dr. Last.' He once attended
professionally on Mrs. Siddons, for whom he had a profomid
admiration, and he often told his friends that he was as much
gratified and flattered by having her for his patient, as from
giving advice to the first nobility of the realm. His most
famous patient was Dr. Johnson, on whose behalf Boswell
consulted him by letter in March 1784.^ Dr. Monro sent a
prescription, and added : ' I most sincerely join you in sym-
pathizing with that very worthy and ingenious character,
1 Memoir, cli, clii.
2 Harveian Oration for 1818, pp. 30-4.
3 BosivelVs Johnson, ed. Birkbeck Hill, 1887, iv. 263-4.
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (SECUNDUS) 105
from whom his country has derived much instruction and
entertainment.'
His love of gardening he indulged by buying in 1773 the
property of Craiglockhart, which Ues in Colinton parish on
the east side of the Water of Leith just below RedhaU. It
extended to 271 Enghsh acres held blench of the Crown,
and was let at the time for £166, 13s. 4d. The advertisement
sets forth : ^ ' The situation is remarkably pleasant, lying on
a gentle ascent commanding a most elegant and extensive
prospect of the Firth, beautifully broken and varied by the
intervention of an infinity of pleasing objects, which form a
situation singularly inviting for building.'
Craiglockhart derives its name from Stephen Lockhart,
who lived about the middle of the twelfth century and was
an ancestor of the Lee family. Later it belonged to James
Sandilands, progenitor of the Torphichens, and in the fifteenth
century it was acquired by the Kincaids of that ilk, a StirHng-
shtre family, who held it for seven generations. In 1609 it
was bought by George Foulis of Ravelston, second son of
James Fouhs of Colinton and Anna Heriot of Lymphoy.
James Foulis, wlao continued the business of his luicle
Thomas Heriot the goldsmith, made over Craiglockhart to his
brother of CoUnton, but fifty years later, when the Colinton
fortimes were on the wane, it was sold to Sir John GUmour
of Craignullar, Lord President of the Court of Session. It
then passed through the hands of Lord President Lockhart,
who was assassinated in 1685, and in 1691 was acquired by
George Porteous, Herald Painter to the King. His son sold
it to John Parkhill, merchant in Edinburgh, from whose son
Dr. Monro bought it.^
The Doctor kept about twenty acres in his own hands,
and let the farm, which extended to one himdred and thirty
1 Edinburgh Courant, March 29, 1773.
- From notes kindly furnished by Mr. James Steuart, W.S.
O
106 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (SECUNDUS)
Scots acres of arable land and fifty of pasture, to a Mr. Scott,
whose family remained there for several generations.^
Dr. Duncan, a brother gardener, often visited the place,
and says : ^ ' While he planted and beautified some charm-
ingly romantic hills, which afforded him such dehghtful
prospects of wood and water, hiU and dale, city and cottage,
as have seldom been equalled, he enclosed in the midst of his
plantations several acres with a proper garden-wall. And
he dedicated to the more deUcate plants every protection
which glass, to a considerable extent, and well constructed
flues, could afford. By means of these, he could entertain
his friends with the most delicious fruits of every climate,
particularly with melons and grapes, which could not be
excelled in any quarter of the world.
'He had there indeed no splendid house in which that
entertainment could be given to them. But he fitted up a
rural cottage, consisting only of two commodious apartments,
adjoining to the house of his head gardener, in whose kitchen
a dinner could be dressed for a few select friends. He had
no bedchamber there, for he was determined, while he con-
tinued in business, never to sleep out of his house in Edin-
burgh when he could easily avoid it.'
Craiglockhart carried a vote for the county, and in the
confidential Whig report on the voters in 1788, Dr. Monro is
noted as being ' very independent.' ^ In 1794, during the
French invasion scare, he was on the Committee of Defence
for Midlothian, and in 1798 he subscribed £300 to the War
Fund.
His earliest town house was the third story of Carmichael's
Land fronting the Lawnmarket next to Buchanan's Court ;
it consisted of eight fire rooms and a kitchen, ' perfectly
free of smoak.' * In 1766 he moved to a new house on the
1 Edinburgh Courani, August 8, 1778. ^ Harveian Oration for 1818, p. 35.
3 Political State of Scotland in 1788.
< Edinburgh Courant, November 22, 1766 ; April 20, 1768.
MRS. ALEXANDER MONRO {Se(
(KATHARINE INGLIS)
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (SECUNDUS) 107
west side of Nicolson Street, of which Lord Cockburn
speaks : ^ ' How often did we stand {circa 1789) to admire
the blue and yellow beds of crocuses rising through the clean
earth in the first days of spring in the garden of old Dr. Monro
(the second), whose house stood in a small field entering from
Nicolson Street, within less than a hvmdred yards south of the
CoUege.' One of Craig's maps shows it on the site now covered
by the Empire Theatre, with the grounds running back halfway
to Potterrow.2 From 1801 till his death Dr. Monro lived in
St. Andrew Square, first at No. 32 and after 1810 at No. 30.
In 1783 he bought, probably
as an investment, the property
of Cockburn, two mUes north of
Duns in Berwickshire. There
was no mansion-house, and the
property consisted of farms,
which extended to 1200 acres,
and at one time brought in a
rental of £1100 a year.^
In 1780 he registered a coat
of arms, being the Bearcrofts
arms with a difference* — or, an
eagle's head erased gules : in its
beak a branch of laurel proper,
in the dexter chief point a sinister
hand erected, couped at the
wrist, of the second, all within a
bordure engrailed azure.
Dr. Monro married on September 25, 1762 Katharine,
yoimger daughter of David Inglis, Treasurer of the Bank
of Scotland, and had two sons — Alexander {Tertius) and
1 Memorials, p. 6.
2 James Craig, ' Plan for the Improvement of the Qty of Edinburgh, 1786.'
3 Edinburgh Couranl, December 2, 1782 ; June 21, 1783.
* Balfour Paul, Ordinary of Scottish Arms, No. 3304.
108 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {8ECUNDUS)
David— and two daughters — Isabella and Charlotte — who
all lived to grow up, another son, the eldest of the family,
dying in infancy. David Inglis (1702-67) was a younger
son of John Inglis of Auchindinny, Writer to the Signet,
and his wife was Katharine, daughter of Charles Binning of
Pilmuir, advocate.^
Mrs. Monro died on May 11, 1803 aged sixty-two. Her
portrait by Raeburn is in possession of Major George Monro,
and her miniature belongs to Mrs. Ferrier of Belsyde.
Isabella, the elder daughter, married on March 13, 1787
Hugh Scott of Gala, Selkirkshire, Captain in the 26th
(Cameronian) Regiment, afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel. He
died at Grenada on October 4, 1795 leaving a son, John,
born August 7, 1790. Mrs. Scott, who was a good musician,
died at Slateford House on September 27, 1801.
Charlotte, the younger daughter, who was born on March
17, 1782, married on November 10, 1808 Louis Henry Ferrier of
Belsyde, Linlithgowshire, advocate. He had been a Lieutenant
in the 94th Regiment (Scots Brigade), and was Lieutenant-
Colonel in the Linlithgowshire Yeomanry. He was appointed
Collector of the Customs at Quebec, and died on January 28,
1833 aged fifty-six. His wife predeceased him on April 26, 1822.
They had a family of five sons and three daughters.
The Memoir of Secundus by his son concludes : ^ ' Dr.
Monro was a kind husband and indidgent parent : and his
good offices were not limited to his own family and relations.
He was always ready to assist the poor with his purse and
professional skiU ; was a subscriber to all charitable institu-
tions ; and took an active share in the management of the
Royal Infirmary.
' In person. Dr. Monro Secundus was about the middle
1 See Chapters xiv.-xvi. on the Binning family. ^ P. cliii.
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (SEGUNDUS) 109
stature, and of vigorous and athletic form. His shoulders
were high and his neck short ; his head was large, and his
forehead full. His, features were strongly marked. He had
a prominent nose, projecting eyebrows, light blue eyes, rather
a large mouth, and a countenance expressive of much inteUi-
gence and study.
' During his long life several portraits were taken of him.
That of Mr. Kay, who has represented him walking along
the North Bridge in a black dress and cocked hat, conveys
a very distinct impression of his face and figure. ^ A portrait
of him, when a young man, was also taken by Mr. Seton,
which has been esteemed a good likeness. The late Sir
Henry Raeburn painted the portrait ^ from which Mr. J.
Heath engraved the annexed portrait, which is, in my mind,
a strong likeness.' There is also a bust of him by an unknown
sculptor in the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.
' When my Father had reached his eightieth year, he used
to become very drowsy after dinner. He had also occasional
headache and sUght bleeding at the nose. These symptoms
were the preludes to an apoplectic seizure, from which, by
the unceasing attention of his friends Dr. Rutherford and
Mr. Bryce, he somewhat recovered. But the malady was not
eradicated ; his weakness gradually increased ; and after
the lapse of four years he died without suffering on the 2nd
of October 1817 in the eighty-fifth year of his age.'
He and his wife are buried at Grej^riars Churchyard.
A comparison between Primus and Secundus is almost
inevitable, as their lives present so many points of similarity.
From boyhood each was marked out for his career by his
father, each fulfilled in the amplest degree the promise of
his youth, held for many years a position of pre-eminence
in the University and the profession, and Hved to see his
son qualified to take up his work. To Primus belongs the
1 It was done in 1790. ^ Belonging to Major George Monro.
110 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (SECUNDUS)
credit of being the pioneer of a great and lasting work ; to
Secundus belongs the credit of not being in the least over-
shadowed by his father's fame, but of actually surpassing
him as a scientist. It is unnecessary, even if it were
possible, to decide which of the two was the greater man ;
it is enough to affirm that what was said of Secundus was
equally true of Primus — he left behind him ' magnum et
venerabile nomen.'
TROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (Tertius)
CHAPTER X
PEOFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (TERTIVS)
Alexander Monro (Tertius) was born at Edinburgh on
November 5, 1773. He was educated at the High School
under the famous Dr. Adam, and had as schoolfellows Lords
Brougham, Jeffrey and Cockburn, and Sir Walter Scott.
He was then sent to the University, and graduated as Doctor
of Medicine on September 12, 1797. He became a licentiate
of the Royal College of Physicians on November 5, and a
Fellow on November 30, 1797.
On September 24, 1798 his father petitioned the Town
Coimcil to appoint the young man his colleague and successor,
taking as his model the petition which his own father had
presented forty-foiu: years before.
He sets forth : ^ ' Dr. Monro is very sensible that in conse-
quence of his own early appointment as assistant to his father,
he devoted himself much more to the study and practice of
anatomy, and of course became much better qualified to teach,
than he should have been without such a prospect before him.
As yet his zeal for the improvement of this branch and his
assiduity in teaching it are unabated ; but he daily becomes
more and more sensible of the advantages the students would
derive from his having conjoined with him a colleague more
capable of undertaking the laborious parts of his course,
and of prosecuting inquiries and performing experiments for
the further improvement of the science. He therefore
humbly petitions the Honble. Patrons of the University that
they wiU be pleased to nominate as colleague and successor
^ Struthers, Edinburgh Anafotnical School, p. 34.
112 PEOFESSOK ALEXANDER MONRO (TERTIUS)
to him his eldest son Alexander, who is now nearly twenty-
five years of age, and who, after having attended for eight
years past his courses of lectures, and, during that period,
all the other medical classes repeatedly, and having received
last year from this University the degree of Doctor of Medi-
cine, has since that had the advantage of attending the
anatomical and other medical classes in London, and the
practice of the London Hospitals. If the Honble, Patrons
are pleased to appoint his son, it is his intention to return
to London and afterwards prosecute the practice and study
of anatomy in the most celebrated Universities of Europe,
in order that nothing may be wanting to place the teaching
of this branch on the most extensive and respectable footing.
Before presenting this petition to his Honble. Patrons, Dr.
Monro thought it a duty he owed to them as well as to his
colleagues in the medical department to show his petition to
them for their opinion, as their interests were deeply con-
cerned, and that they had had the best opportunity of observ-
ing the diligence and knowing the quahfications of his son,
and he has the satisfaction to find that they unanimously
approve of his petition and join in the prayer of it.'
Although the Coxmcil had as recently as the previous
March resolved that no professor should be elected until a
vacancy occurred, they treated this as an exceptional occa-
sion, and unanimously granted the petition on November
14, 1798 ; and they made no reservation in the commission
of their right to separate anatomy from surgery — a fact which
afterwards came to be of importance.
Monro (Tertius) completed his studies in London, where
he worked at surgery under Wilson, and in Paris, where he
stayed a short time ; and in 1800 he took up his duties as
assistant to his father. From 1802 he conducted most of
the course, and after the introductory lecture of 1808, the
last delivered by Secundus, he had sole charge of the class
until his own retirement in 1846.
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {TERTIUS) 113
It soon became apparent that Monro {Tertius) did not
adequately fill the great position which his father and grand-
father had created. He had undoubted abihty, though his
bent was towards physiology rather than anatomy, but he
was indolent, and had many eccentricities of appearance
and manner. The result was that his teaching was perfunctory,
and the discipline of his class deplorable.
The Scots Magazine of 1826 puts the matter mildly : ^
' The Professor follows the text-book of Dr. Monro his
grandfather — a work which for clearness of expression and
elegance of style, coupled with wonderful minuteness and
accuracy of description, can be scarcely surpassed. But it
admits of some doubt, whether more recent publications
might not now be substituted even by the Professor himself,
with safety and advantage.
' Dr. Monro inherits a very considerable degree of the
talent of his family, and acquits himself in the anatomical
chair with some eclat. But it appears to be rather a dis-
advantage than otherwise to his pupils that he yields with
so much facility to the thought of the moment, and diverges
from his subject upon somewhat shght occasions. His
manner is interesting for a little from the interspersion of
extraneous matter ; but by-and-by it becomes tiresome,
when he seems ever ready to fly off at a tangent ; and his
course of lecttires imfortunately has thus somewhat the
appearance of defective arrangement.'
A propos of his dehvering his grandfather's lectures, the
story is told that he would read a passage ' When I was in
Leyden in the year 1718,' etc.
Sir Robert Christison, who was successively Professor of
Medical Jurisprudence and of Materia Medica, gives his
recollections of the class as follows : ^ ' Monro (Tertius)
was far from being a popular lecturer. In all he did and
1 p. 450.
2 Life of Sir Robert Christism, 1885, i. 68 ; Eighty Years Ago, R. D. Gibney, p. 24.
P
114 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO {TERTIU8)
said his manner betrayed an unimpassioned indifference, as
if it were all one to him whether his teaching was acceptable
and accepted or not. . . . Yet he lacked neither abUity nor
accomphshments. But apathy in a teacher cannot stir up
enthusiasm in the student. A lecturer who seldom shows
himself in his dissecting-room wUl scarcely be looked up to
as an anatomist. A professor careless about dress must lay
his accoimt with being made the subject of many a student's
joke. It is no wonder that with such weaknesses he lost
command of his class, which in his latter years became the
frequent scene of disturbance and uproar. Nevertheless
Monro gave a very clear, precise, complete course of anatomy
when I attended him [1815] ; and certainly I learned anatomy
well under him.'
It is not surprising that extra-mural teachers arose and
flourished, and that the Professor's classes dwindled. During
his first decade the average was 262 ; twenty years later it
had dropped to 220, whUe the number of matriculated medical
students had more than doubled, though it is fair to say that
matriculation was only enforced strictly after 1809.
Like his father he gave no clinical instruction, but he
started a class of Practical Anatomy in 1803.
In 1812 the Town Coimcil, in answer to a representation
by the Senatus, raised the class fees for his lectures from
three to four guineas ; six shUhngs was also paid by each
student towards the maintenance of a doorkeeper, the clean-
ing and fitring of the lecture-room, and the expense of getting
bodies and spirits for preserving them.
His career as a professor was a constant struggle to main-
tain his position, not so much against the competition of other
teachers of anatomy as against the growing demand for the
separate teaching of surgery. After 1800 the official teaching
of surgery passed to him from his father, and the agitation
began anew. In 1803 a professorship of Chnical Siirgery
was established in spite of opposition from Secundus, and
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (TERTIUS) 115
next year the College of Surgeons instituted a chair of
Systematic Surgery, which was continued until the Univer-
sity obtained its chair. In 1806 a professorship of Military
Surgery was founded in the University.
The great abihties and influence of Secundus being no
longer in the scale, the last argument against this necessary
reform was gone, but Tertius held his ground amid a war
of pamphleteering, until the appointment in 1826 of the
Scottish Universities' Commission, which considered the
teaching of surgery and pathology in its general survey of the
situation. The Town CoimcU took the initiative in February
1827 by appointing a committee, which reported in the
following September : ^ ' (1) That anatomy and sxirgery each
afford ample employment for a separate professor, and that
the conjunction of these two important branches must be
injurious to the usefulness of the teacher, the interests of
the student, and to the advancement of medical science.
(2) That different quaUfications are necessary for the successful
teaching of these respective branches, moreespeciaUy of surgery,
the principles and practice of which can only be successfully
taught by one engaged in its exercise as a practitioner.'
The committee expressed doubt whether the Town
Council could effect the separation at its own hand, as there
was no reservation in the Professor's commission, and they
appointed a deputation to confer with him. At their meet-
ing Monro stated his opinion that the two subjects were
so intimately connected that it would be improper to disjoin
them, and that he had planned his course on the principle
of combining their study, giving surgery a prominent place
in his lectures and demonstrations, for which purpose he
had collected an extensive and costly set of instruments :
moreover he considered that it woiild materially injure his
character and interest as a professor if he consented to any
separation of the two subjects.
1 Appendix to Report (1837), p. 119.
116 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (TEBTIUS)
He was asked to reduce his opinions to writing, but he
wrote refusing to do so, and said : ^ ' You will see from the
commissions recorded in the Council books that I hold an
unqualified commission ad vitam aut culpam as Professor of
Surgery as well as of Anatomy. Since my appointment I
have given lectures on both these branches, and the number
of my pupils has considerably increased for the last ten years.
[This seems hardly accurate.] No one, I apprehend, can
be entitled to interfere with, or dispose of the professor-
ship, which I hold for life under the commission which I
had the honour to receive from the town-council, without
my authority or consent ; and as such consent has never
yet been asked, it appears to be premature to enter upon
the discussion of the question brought forward in the
report.'
In his oral evidence before the Commission and in his
observations on the scheme proposed by the Commissioners
he repeated these arguments and added a few more.^ He
stated that he gave ninety-three lectures on anatomy and
seventy on surgery, and that if surgery and pathology were
disjoined he would be deprived of his most attractive sub-
jects, and anatomy would be reduced to comparative insignifi-
cance. It would be difficult to occupy a six months' course
with anatomy alone, and it would be impossible to get a
sufficient supply of bodies for dissection. The proposed
change would cost the students additional fees, and would
result in a reduplication of anatomical teaching, as the
Professor of Surgery would have to refer to the anatomy
of the various parts.
In October 1830 the Commission presented their report,
which contains the following passage : ^
' Upon the necessity of a separate professor of Surgery
1 Appendix to Report (1837), p. 120.
2 Evidence, pp. 271, 299 ; Appendix, p. 269.
3 BepoH (1831), p. 60.
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (TERTIUS) 117
we believe that there is but one opinion entertained by
all medical men, including the professors. The Professor
of Anatomy in the University of Edinburgh entertains, it
is true, different views upon this subject ; but the opinions
which we have formed upon the concurrent testimony of
all the witnesses have not been shaken by the representa-
tions which he has made to us.'
The chair of Systematic Surgery was founded in the
following year. Monro still maintained that he was an
authorised teacher of surgery in the Edinburgh Medical
School, if not in the University, but in 1838 the College of
Siirgeons silenced this contention by refusing to recognise
any teacher for more than one subject.^
Reference has already been made ^ to the great difficulty
of obtaining bodies for dissection : the matter reached a
crisis about 1828, when a Select Committee conducted an
inquiry, which revealed the magnitude of the evil and the
nefarious practices to which it gave rise. The Committee
was chiefly concerned with the state of matters in London,
though Monro sent in a memorial representing the views of
the Royal College of Physicians,^ but just at that time
Edinburgh produced a series of crimes which vividly im-
pressed the popular imagination. Two scoundrels, named
Burke and Hare, were convicted of having actually murdered
several victims in order to seU their bodies for dissection.
The anatomist involved in this transaction was Dr. Robert
Knox, who became extremely unpopular ; not that any
great moral blame attached to him, as it had long been the
practice for all the teachers to get ' subjects ' from the ' body-
snatchers ' without any questions asked. The case showed
the urgent need for a change in the law, and in 1832 an Act *
^ Struthers, Edinburgh Anatomical School, p. 89.
2 Supra, p. 97.
^ Appendix to Report of Committee on Anatomy, p. 124.
♦ 2 and 3 Will, iv., cap. 75.
118 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (TERTIUS)
was passed putting schools of anatomy under government
inspection, and permitting recognised teachers and students
to obtain bodies from the persons having lawful custody of
them, provided the relatives did not object. This made
hospitals and similar institutions available as sources of
supply, and the difficulty was solved.
Monro (Tertius) resigned his chair in 1846, and severed
the long connection of the family with the professorship of
Anatomy — a connection which had lasted one hundred and
twenty-six years.
He was a voluminous writer, his chief works being
Outlines of the Anatomy of the Human Body in four volumes
(1811), and Elements of Anatomy in two volumes (1825) ;
but they have not proved of permanent value.
He practised as a physician, and performed minor opera-
tions, but he never attained the position in the profession
which his father had held. He was, however. Secretary
of the Royal College of Physicians from 1809 to 1819, and
President in 1827 and 1828. He was also on the Council
of the Wernerian Natural History Society, of which he
became a member in 1811. He was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1798, and at his death was
father of the Society.
His first house was 15 Nicolson Square, but on his mother's
death he went to live with his father in St. Andrew Square.
When his father died he moved to 121 George Street, and
remained there till 1832, when he settled at Craiglockhart,
where he had built a mansion-house.
He inherited his father's taste for gardening. He was
also a good judge of pictures, and made a small collection
of his own, chiefly of the Dutch school. He was an excellent
classical scholar, and spoke Latin well.
His portrait by an unknown artist hangs in the Surgeons'
Hall, Edinburgh ; another portrait of him as a young man
by Raeburn, and a small water-colour by Kenneth Macleay
MRS. ALEXANDER MONRO {Terthis)
(MARIA AGNES CARMICHAEL-SMYTH)
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (TERTIUS) 119
belong to Major George Monro ; a caricature of him appears
in Crombie's Modern Athenians.
He enjoyed good health and spirits down to his death,
which occurred at Craiglockhart on March 10, 1859 in his
eighty-sixth year.^ He was buried in the Dean Cemetery.
He was twice married. On September 20, 1800 he was
married at St. George's, Bloomsbury, to Maria Agnes, elder
daughter of Dr. James Carmichael- Smyth, F.R.S., and
had twelve children. Mrs. Monro was born on November 9,
1776, and died on July 6, 1833. To avoid the risk of
'resurrection' she was buried in the grounds at Craig-
lockhart, but her eldest son afterwards had her remains
removed to the Dean Cemetery.
Professor Monro's second wife, whom he married at
Carlowrie, Linhthgowshire, on July 15, 1836, was Jessie, or
Janet, daughter of David Hunter, stockbroker, of Montague
Street, London, and younger sister of Mrs. Robert Lowis
of Plean. Mrs. Monro had no family : she survived her
husband, and died at Bath on August 4, 1886 aged eighty- two.
1 Scotsman, March 18, 1859.
CHAPTER XI
DR. JAMES CARMICHAEL-SMYTH
Dr. James Carmichael-Smyth was descended on his father's
side from the Carmichaels of Balmedie.^ He was born on
February 23, 1742, the only son of Dr. Thomas Carmichael,
and Margaret, eldest daughter and heiress of Dr. James
Smjrth of Atherney or Aithemie in Fife, and took the name
of Smyth in accordance with his grandfather's will.
Dr. Carmichael-Smyth was an original pupil of Monro
(Secundus), and took his degree as M.D. of Edinbiu-gh on
October 29, 1764. He was President of the Royal Medical
Society 1764-5. After getting further experience in France,
Italy and Holland, he settled in London in 1768, and became
a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians there on
June 25, 1770.^ In 1775 he was appointed a physician to
the Middlesex Hospital, and was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society on May 13, 1779. He lived in Charlotte
Street, Bloomsbury.
In 1780 he was appointed by Government to take charge
of the prison and hospital at Winchester, where an epidemic
of typhus fever was raging, and he employed nitrous acid as a
disinfectant with great success. As a reward for his services
he was appointed Physician-Extraordinary to the King and
Parliament voted him £1200. The motion was opposed
in the House of Commons as 'a Scotch job, supported by
aU ±he Scotch members.' ^
* Scots Peerage, ed. Balfour Paul, art. ' Hyndford,' contributed by E. G. M.
Cannichael. ^ Munk, Roll of the Royal College of Physicians, ii. 383.
" Edinburgh Advertiser, May 29, 1781.
120
DR. JAMES CARMICHAEL-SMYTH 121
In February 1802 he applied to Parliament for further
recognition of the value of his discovery, which had been
generally adopted, his petition being presented by William
Wilberforce, the slavery abolitionist.^ The credit of the
discovery was hotly contested on behalf of Dr. James John-
stone of Worcester and by the French on behalf of M. Guyton-
Morveau, but Dr. Carmichael-Smyth's claim was upheld,
and he was voted £5000. ^
The College of Physicians admitted him a Fellow on
Jime 25, 1788 ; and he was Censor in 1788, 1793 and 1801,
Harveian orator in 1793, and an Elect in 1802. He then
retired from practice, and Uved first at East Acton, and
afterwards at Sunbury, where he died on June 18, 1821.
In 1775 he contracted a runaway match with Mary,
only daughter of Thomas Holyland of Bromley and Mary
Elton of Nether Hall, Ledbury, Herefordshire. They were
married at Gretna Green on November 9, the bride being
only fifteen years old. She must have been a lovely girl,
to judge from her portrait by Romney, who painted her
and her husband in 1788 for a fee of fifty guineas. She
died suddenly on May 24, 1806, while dining at Gatton,
Sunbury, Surrey, the house of Sir Mark Wood, Bart. Her
age was forty-six, and she had had eight sons and two
daughters, Mrs. Monro being the eldest of the family.
1 OentlemarCa Magazine, 1802, i. 262 ; ii. 671.
^ History of the JohnsUmea, C. L. Johnstone, pp. 266-8.
CHAPTER XII
DAVID MONRO BINNING AND HIS DESCENDANTS
David, the yovmger son of Dr. Alexander Monro {Secundus),
was born at Edinburgh on February 16, 1776. He took
the additional surname of Binning in 1796 on acquiring the
property of Wester Softlaw near Kelso, which was bought
and settled on him according to the testamentary directions
of his distant cousin WiUiam Binning.^ He was admitted
an advocate on June 9, 1798, but did not practise.
He died at Inverleith House, Edinburgh, on January 24,
1843 aged sixty-six, and is buried in Greyfriars Churchyard,
He was twice married. His first wife, whom he married
on August 9, 1803, was his cousin, Sophia Home of Argaty,
who died at Madeira on May 29, 1806, leaving two sons,
George Home and Alexander. A picture of the two boys
was painted by Raeburn in 1811.
I. George Home, who was born on May 28, 1804, succeeded
to Argaty on his mother's death and to Softlaw on his father's
death. He took with Argaty the surname of Home, and
became George Home Monro Binning Home. He was
admitted an advocate on February 1, 1828. He married
on February 20, 1839, Catherine, daughter of Lt.-Col. Joseph
Burnett of Gadgirth, Ayrshire, and had six children ; two
died in infancy, and the other four were :
(1) Sophia Margaret, born May 29, 1841, died at Paris
March 24, 1860.
* For the Binnings, see Chapters xiv.-xvi.
THE BINNING HOMES OF ARGATY 123
(2) David George, born February 13, 1843, died at Paris
June 26, 1859.
(3) Catherine Agnes Jane, born April 13, 1844, died at
29 George Square, Edinburgh, February 28, 1865.
(4) George Joseph, born May 22, 1845, died at Argaty,
October 31, 1846.
George Home Monro Binning Home died on January 10,
1884, aged seventy-nine. His widow survived till August 14,
1895, and Argaty then went to Dr. George Home Monro, son
of his nephew, Alexander Monro.
II. Alexander, second son of David Monro Binning and
Sophia Home, was born on May 22, 1805. He was admitted
a Writer to the Signet on March 5, 1829, but did not practise.
He succeeded to Auchinbowie in 1835 on his grandmother's
death, and adopted the surname Binning Monro. He took
Softlaw as heir of entail on the death of his brother.
He married on August 4, 1835 his first cousin, Harriet,
fourth daughter of Dr. Alexander Monro (Tertius). He died
at Oxford on December 12, 1891, aged eighty-six, and his
widow died on March 7, 1898, aged eighty-one.
Their family consisted of :
(1) David, born November 16, 1836, died unmarried
August 22, 1905.1 jjg -^^as educated at Glasgow
University, and afterwards at BaUiol College, Oxford,
where he was a scholar. He obtained a 1st Class
in both Classical and Mathematical Moderations in
1856, and in the Final Classical Schools in 1858.
He won the Ireland Scholarship in 1858, and the
Chancellor's Prize for a Latin Essay in 1859. The
latter year he was elected a Fellow of Oriel, and
became Provost in 1882. He was Vice-ChanceUor of
the University from 1901 to 1904. His reputation
as a scholar, particularly as a writer on Homer, was
1 Memoir, J. Cook Wilson.
124 THE BINNING MONROS OF AUCHINBOWIE
world-wide. He succeeded his father in Auchinbowie
and Softlaw.
(2) Alexander, born AprU 12, 1838. He emigrated to
New Zealand, and married (I) March 18, 1862
Elizabeth, daughter of Paymaster Charles Edward
CottereU, R.N., with issue :
(i) George Home, born November 29, 1865, M.B.,
CM. Edinburgh 1890, M.D. 1901, succeeded to
Argaty on the death of his granduncle's widow,
August 14, 1895, and assumed the surname
Monro-Home.
(ii) Alexander Edward, born May 16, 1867, B.A.
Cambridge (11th Wrangler) 1889.
(iii) Herbert David, born December 28, 1869,
married Mrs. Clarke, with issue two sons and
one daughter,
(iv) Henry Charles, born September 6, 1874.
(v) EUzabeth Maria, married 1893 H. F. Turner,
eldest son of Major Turner, Patea, N.Z., with
issue one son, George Noel,
(vi) Harriet Sophia,
(vii) Marion, died in infancy 1872.
He married (II) 1895 Annie Frances, daughter of
Rev. F. W. Peel. On his brother's death he suc-
ceeded to Softlaw as heir of entail, and assumed
the surname Binning Monro,
(3) George Home, of Valleyfield, near Blenheim, New
Zealand, born November 28, 1840, died June 25,
1885, married January 27, 1873 Isabella Selina,
youngest daughter of William Wrothsley Baldwin
of Stede Hill, Harrietsham, Kent, and by her (who
married, secondly, 1888 John Dow Busby of Taradale,
Napier, N.Z.) had issue:
(i) Alexander William, born March 14, 1875, sue-
DAVID MONRO BINNING 125
ceeded to Auchinbowie on the death of his
uncle David, married October 29, 1910 Geral-
dine Marion, eldest daughter of M. Murray-
Johnson.
(ii) Charles George, born July 8, 1878, married 1905
Catherine Alice Nicholls, with issue one son and
two daughters.
(iii) George Home, born November 16, 1879, married
1910 Agnes Katharine Goulter.
(iv) Eliza Harriet.
(v) Katharine Jane.
(4) Charles Carmichael, born December 1, 1851.
(5) Maria Agnes, married 1874 Colonel Thomas Peach
Waterman, late Bengal Staff Corps, who died 1877
without issue.
(6) Jane Sophia, died unmarried 1887.
David Monro Binning married (secondly) on July 2,
1813, Isabella, second daughter of Lord President Robert
Blair of Avontoun, and had two children — Robert Blair,
and Isabella Cornelia — the latter was born on December 3,
1815, and died unmarried on January 18, 1844.
Mrs. David Monro Binning died on May 22, 1879, aged
eighty-nine, and is buried with her husband at Greyfriars,
Edinburgh.
III. Robert Blair Monro Binning was born on May 5,
1814, and went into the Madras Civil Service. He married
on October 14, 1858 his first cousin Kathrine, eldest daughter
of Louis Henry Ferrier of Belsyde and Charlotte Monro.
They had no family. Mr. Robert Binning died on September
11, 1891, aged seventy-seven; his wife predeceased him on
May 24, 1882, aged seventy-one.
CHAPTER XIII
THE FAMILY OF PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MONRO (TERTIUS)
The twelve children of Monro (Tertius) were :
I. Alexander, of Craiglockhart and Cockburn, born July
5, 1803, Captain in the Rifle Brigade, married Elizabeth,
second daughter of Charles Balfour Scott of WoU, Roxburgh-
shire. Captain Monro sold the Craiglockhart estate, reserving
the mansion-house. He died at Clifton on January 22, 1867
without issue : his widow died on July 19, 1879 aged fifty-six.
II. James, born September 15, 1806, succeeded his brother
in Craiglockhart and Cockburn, Surgeon-Major in the Cold-
stream Guards, married August 18, 1857, Maria, daughter
of Colonel Duffin of the Bengal Army. He died on November
3, 1870, and his widow died on March 9, 1900. Then- family
consisted of :
(1) Alexander, born May 20, 1859, died unmarried October
16, 1879 at Devacolam, Travancore, India, as the
result of an accident.
(2) James, born April 11, 1868, died unmarried November
8, 1901 at Colombo. His father's trustees sold
Craiglockhart House and Cockburn, the former being
bought in 1890 by Mr. (afterwards Sir) Alexander
Oliver Riddell.
(3) Agnes Maria, married July 25, 1901 Marcel Cuenod,
with issue a daughter Vivian, born April 14, 1902.
III. Henry, of Crawford, Victoria, born August 24, 1810,
died November 1869, married (1) Jane Christie, with issue
FAMILY OF ALEXANDER MONRO (TERTIUS) 127
Maria, who married Dr. Grier and died 1894 ; (2) Catherine,
daughter of Alexander Power of Clonmult, co, Cork. She
died 1889 aged sixty, having had issue :
(1) Alexander, born 1847, M.A., B.C.L., Oxford (Scholar
of Oriel), entered the Indian Civil Service 1879, served
in the Indian Educational Service, retired 1904, CLE.,
twice Mayor of Godalming, married 1879 Evelyn
Agnes, daughter of Arthur DingwaU, with issue two
sons and two daughters.
(2) David Carmichael, born 1849, married 1880 Ehzabeth
Josephine, daughter of Andrew Murray of Murrays-
hall, with issue two sons and three daughters.
(3) Henry, born 1851, died 1875.
(4) James, died in infancy.
(5) George Nowlan, born October 2, 1857, Major in the
Worcestershire Regiment, retired 1904. Bought
Auchinbowie in 1910 from his cousin Alexander
William Monro, married February 24, 1906 Tempe,
daughter of Sir Frederick Falkiner, Recorder of
Dublin, and widow of General WiUiam Forrest, C.B.,
with issue, Alexander George Falkiner, born March 1,
1908.
(6) Charles Carmichael, born June 15, 1860, served in the
Royal West Surrey Regiment, C.B., Brigadier-General
commanding 13th Brigade in Ireland, 1907-11, Major-
General 1910.
(7) Isabella, married 1876 Captain George Vernon Colman
Napier, 3rd Hussars, afterwards Colonel commanding
1st (King's) Dragoon Guards. He died 1890, leaving
issue two sons.
(8) Harriet Ehzabeth, married 1889 John Troutbeck,
Coroner for Westminster, with issue two sons and one
daughter.
(9) Amy Charlotte.
128 FAMILY OF ALEXANDER MONRO {TERTIUS)
IV. Sir David, born March 27, 1813, assisted his father
as a physician in Edinburgh, emigrated to New Zealand
in 1841. He married in May 1845 Dinah, daughter of John
Seeker of Widford, Oxfordshire, and died on February 15,
1877 at Newstead near Nelson. His widoAv died on June 10,
1882.
The Dictionary of National Biography gives the following
account of him : ' When the first General Assembly was
convened 24 May 1854, he was retiu-ned as a member of it,
and was chosen to second the address to the governor. He
was Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1861 and
1862, and was knighted. At the general election in 1866
he was elected member for Cheviot and was again Speaker
until 1870, when he retired from this post. He was then
much incensed at the failure of WiUiam Fox, leader of the
House, to propose any vote of thanks for his services ; and
in order to attack him he obtained a seat, but lost it on
petition. Thereupon the House of Representatives adopted
an address praying that some mark of favour might be
shown him for his long services ; but Fox stiU refused to
recommend so outspoken an opponent for a seat in the
Legislative Council. Monro was then elected to the House
for Waikonati and opposed Fox's government.'
His family consisted of:
(1) Alexander, born March 1846, died July 17, 1905,
married 1885 Frances Severn, with issue four sons
and one daughter.
(2) David, born July 1847, died unmarried July 1869.
(3) James Stuart, born March 1850, died May 1850.
(4) Charles John, born April 1851, married 1885 Helena
Beatrice, daughter of Donald Macdonald, with issue
three sons and two daughters.
(5) Henry James Carmichael, born December 1860, died
February 1866.
FAMILY OF ALEXANDER MONRO (TERTIU8) 129
(6) Maria Georgiana, married 1886 Sir James Hector,
M.D., F.R.S., K.C.M.G., who died November 1907,
having had issue six sons and three daughters.
(7) Constance Charlotte, born November 1853, died
April 1, 1910, married 1876 Philip Gerald Dillon,
who died 1890, leaving one son and four daughters.
V. WiUiam, born February 24, 1815, Major 79th (Cameron)
Highlanders, married in 1843 Elizabeth, eldest daughter of
Sir Robert Abercromby, fifth Baronet. Major Monro died
on March 2, 1881 ; his widow died on August 4, 1893. Their
family consisted of :
(1) Maria Elizabeth Janet, married Thomas Stanley
Rogerson, who died May 2, 1910, having had issue
one son (who died young) and three daughters.
(2) Sophia Frances Margaret, died unmarried February 20,
1902.
(3) Charlotte Mary Douglas, married December 8, 1875
her first cousin Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, fifth
Baronet, who died March 13, 1907. Lady Colquhoun
died January 9, 1902, leaving two daughters.
VI. Charles, born April 30, 1818, died at the age of twenty
months.
VTI. Maria, born November 22, 1801, married February 5,
1828 John IngUs of Langbyres, Auchindinny and Redhall,
advocate, who died March 23, 1847. Mrs. Inglis died
November 6, 1884, leaving issue two sons and three daughters.
VIII. Catherine, born November 4, 1804, married June 1,
1835 as his second wife. Sir John James Steuart of AUanbank
Berwickshire, fifth and last Baronet. ^ She died without
^ Coltness Collections (Maitland Club), p. 391 ; Autobiography of George, Eighth Duke
of Argyll, i. 114.
130 FAMILY OF ALEXANDER MONRO (TERTIUS)
issue April 18, 1868, and her husband predeceased her on
January 29, 1849 aged sixty-nine. Her bust by Sir John
Steele is in the Scottish National Gallery.
IX. Georgiana, born June 8, 1808, married in 1831
George Skene of Rubislaw, Aberdeenshire, Professor of Civil
and Scots Law in Glasgow University. She died on June 4,
1868. He died on January 2, 1875 aged sixty-seven. Their
family consisted of:
(1) James Francis, advocate, born 1833, died unmarried
September 22, 1861.
(2) Maria Isabella, died unmarried May 1902.
(3) Jane Georgiana, born April 29, 1839, died June 14,
1871, married June 16, 1864 George Michael Fraser-
Tjrtler of Keith Marischal, East Lothian, son of
James Tytler of Woodhouselee. He died on January
3, 1905, aged eighty-two. Their family was :
(i) Alexander James Eraser, born June 11, 1865,
died January 13, 1869.
(ii) Blanche Georgiana, bom September 4, 1866,
died April 26, 1871.
(iii) George William, born May 12, 1868, died
June 11, 1868.
(iv) Maurice William, who assumed the surname
of Skene-Tytler, born June 18, 1869, married
September 17, 1902 Caroline Charlotte, elder
daughter of Lieut. -Colonel Henry Lonsdale
HaUeweU, C.M.G.
(v) Georgiana Mabel Kate, married April 22, 1897
Ernest Henry Greene, barrister-at-law, Dublin.
(4) Katherine Elizabeth, married June 20, 1861 George
Chancellor, W.S., who died April 4, 1875.
FAMILY OF ALEXANDER MONRO (TERTIUS) 131
X. Harriet, born Augvist 2, 1816, married August 4, 1835 ^
her cousin, Alexander Binning Monro, W.S., of Auchinbowie,
and died March 7, 1898 leaving issue.
XL Isabella, bom November 3, 1819, died tmmarried
October 12, 1908.
XII. Charlotte, born February 14, 1821, died April 3,
1908, married October 14, 1851 Rev. Henry Mordaunt
Fletcher, with issue :
(1) Rev. Miles Douglas, Vicar of Brize-Norton, Oxford-
shire, born January 22, 1853, married October 20,
1891 Ethel, daughter of Lieut. -Colonel W. H. Worthy
Bennett, with issue five sons and one daughter.
(2) Archibald Henry John, born November 26, 1856,
married September 2, 1884 Florence Emiha, daughter
of Rev. Anthony Bxmting, with issue two sons and
one daughter.
(3) Rev. George Charles, Vicar of Newchurch-in-Pendle,
Burnley, Lancashire, born October 17, 1859.
(4) Charlotte Maria.
(5) Ehzabeth Grace.
1 Supra, p. 123.
BINNING PEDIGREE
THOMAS BINNING, got charter of Carlowriehaugh 1571, d. Feb. 17, 1606,
m. Catharine, daughter of William Livingatoiie of Ecclesmachan.
James, of Carlowriehaugh, b. 1580, d. Feb. 22, 1663,
m. (1), 1618, Marion, daughter of Addinstone of
Addinstone, who d. March 1635 ; (2) April 26,
1636, Euphemia, daughter of Baillie of Jervis-
ton, who d. April 1670.
James, of Carlowriehaugh,
advocate, d. 1681, m. 1670,
Margaret Burnet, who d.
1695. I
Catherine,
m. March 1650,
Laurence Scott of
Bavelaw, two sons
and six daughters.
Margaret, m. (1) William Ross of
Swanston, one daughter; (2)
John Craig, second son of Sir
Thomas Craig of Eiccarton,
one daughter.
John,
merchant in
Edinburgh.
James,
writer in
Edinburgh.
ILupham,
Jan. 1664,
Nov. 1665.
Laurence, b. Nov. 1665, d. May 1708,
m. Sept. 24, 1697, Margaret, daughter
of Sir David Hume (Lord Crossrig).
John,
Elizabeth,
VS'
d. unm.
Feb. 4,
1746.
William, advocate,
sold Wallyford,
d. unm.
Feb. 2,1791,
aged 81.
Catherine, b. Feb. 1667, m. Feb. 13,
1697, William Baird, second son of
Sir Robert Baird of Saughton, four
sons and seven daughters.
John,
d. s.p.
Laurence,
d. s.p.
I
BINNING PEDIGREE
Thomas, tailor burgess
of Edinburgh.
Sib William, b. March 11, 1637, d. Jan. 8, 1711, Lord Provost of Edin-
burgh 1675-7, bought Wallyford 1675, knighted Jan. 1677, m.
(1) Dec. 1662, Elizabeth, daughter of LAnRENCE Scott of Bavelaw.
She d. Dec. 1698, aged 59 ; (2) April 1701, Mary Livingstone of
Saltcoats, widow of James Menzies of Coulterallers. She d. s.p.
James,
b. July
WUliam of Wallyford, b. July 1669,
m. 1709, Isobel, daughter of John
Dundas of Duddingston.
I
Hew,
b. Oct.
1670,
d. young.
Charles, b. Nov. 1674, d. Sep. 15, 1758,
Solicitor-General 1721-5, bought Fil-
muir 1722, m. July 1706, Margaret,
daughter of Hew Montgomery of
Broomlands. I
b. Oct. 11,
1709,
d. June 1,
1710.
Datid Inqlis, Trea-
surer of the Bank of
Scotland, who d. Jan. 13,
1767, aged 65.
Barbara,
b. June
1712,
d. Feb. 9,
1713.
Isobe
bel,
d. unm.
July 28,
Elizabeth,
ni. July 1744,
Andrew
Buchanan,
of Drumpellier,
d. s.p. 1782.
William, advocate,
b. Aug. 27, 1716,
d. Aug. 1751,
m. March 1750,
Elizabeth, daugh-
ter of Archibald
Stewart of Tor-
rance. I
Margaret,
b. Dee. 12,
1717.
Margaret,
b. Sept. 10, 1739,
d. unm. Feb. 27,
1800.
Katharine, b. Jan. 21,
1741, d. May 11, 1803,
m. Sept. 25, 1762,
Prop. Alexander
Monro (Secandus).
Charles,
b. March 2
1761,
d. 1754.
CHAPTER XIV
THE BINNINGS OF WALLYFORD
NiSBET states ^ with some probability that the Binnings are
French by extraction, and that the name was originally
Benigne (Latin Benignus = grsicious). With greater rash-
ness he traces the descent of the WaUyford family from a
peasant named WiUiam Bunnock, who is said to have con-
trived a stratagem to capture Linlithgow Castle, which was
held by an English garrison under Peter Lubard in the year
1308, during Robert the Bruce' s War of Independence. The
story depends for its authority upon John Barbour's Bruce,
a poem written about 1370, and was perpetuated by Sir
Walter Scott in his Tales of a Grandfather.
Bunnock was employed by the garrison to bring in hay,
and his plan was to conceal eight armed men in his cart,
while he himself walked ' ydilly ' alongside : others were
posted in ambush near the gate. The poem narrates : ^
' And quhen it wes set evinly
Betuix the chekys of the yet [the gate-posts]
Swa that men mycht it spar na gat, [fasten in no way]
He cryit, " theif, call all, caU all ! "
And than he leyt the gadwand [whip] fall,
And hewit in twa the soym ia hy. [the trace in haste]
Bimnok with that dehuerly [quickly]
Raucht tin the portar sic ane rout, [dealt such a blow]
That blude and hamys [brains] bath com out,
1 Heraldry, i. 100, 429.
2 The Bruce (Scottish Text Society), i. 244 (Book x. lines 137-250).
THE BINDINGS
135
And thai that war within the wayn
Lap out belif, [quickly] and soyn has slajTi
Men of the castell that war by.
Than in a quhill begouth [began] the cry,
And thai that neir enbuschit war
Lap out, and com with swerdis bar.
And tuk the castell all but payn, [without a struggle]
And thame that tharin wes has slayn.'
Tradition rounded off the story by making Robert the
Bruce reward Bunnock with a grant of the lands of East
Binning near Ecclesmachan in
Linlithgowshire, and Scott, fol-
lowing Hart who published an
edition in 1616, caUs the hero
Binnock or Binning. On the
strength of this exploit the arms
granted in 1675 to Sir WiUiam
Binning of WaUjiord and James
his half-brother were : ^ — argent,
on a bend engrailed sable a
waggon or : crest, a demi horse
furnished for a waggon. Sir
William, as a cadet, had a bor-
dure sable roimd the coat, and
took the motto, Christo duce
feliciter. James's motto was
Virtute doloque.
Unfortunately this picturesque incident gets no corrobora-
tion from the serious historians of the period, — in fact Lin-
lithgow Castle is foimd in the hands of the Enghsh after the
date assigned to its capture. There is no record of Robert
the Bruce bestowing East Binning upon Bunnock, and there
is no chain of links connecting the Walljrford family with
the supposed grantee. A manuscript history of the family
1 Nisbet, Heraldry, i. 100.
136 THE BINNINGS
was written by William Binning, advocate, about the year
1780, and is followed by Btirke,^ but the first six generations
of the pedigree there given are mere names, and some-
times not even that. William de Benyng, great-grandson
of the eponymous hero, is the first of the descendants to
be provided with a name ; then follows a succession of
fathers and sons, called respectively David, William, David,
Thomas.
This genealogy is not plausible, nor does it square with
the scattered references to the lairds of Easter Binning in
the public records. In 1429 William de Benyn granted a
nineteen years' lease of his lands of Estir Benyng,^ and
Nisbet says ^ that he saw in Wall3rford's charter chest a
charter by James i. (1406-38) of the lands of East Binning
in favour of David de Binning on the resignation of William
his father. The existence of this charter in possession of
the Wallyford family is at least a presumption that they
were the direct descendants of the Binnings of Easter Binning,
but it is impossible to trace the family further back, and the
attempt to link them to Bvmnock, if such a person ever
existed, just illustrates the eternal tendency of genealogists
to start their pedigrees from some heroic personage, in
defiance of all rules of historical evidence.
According to the records John Bynnyng is the laird from
1484 till 1503,* though by that time he was in financial diffi-
culties and had burdened the mansion-house and part of the
lands for 200 merks. In 1505 Thomas Binning took sasine,^
and at various times within the next twenty years he dis-
poned certain portions to Robert Bruce of Wester Binning.®
He died before 1526. In 1532 Elizabeth Binning made up
1 Landed Gentry, Supplement, 1848, p. 168.
2 B. M. S., 1424-1613, No. 192. » Heraldry, i. 429.
» R. P. S., i. 609 ; Acta Dom. Concilii,* 101, 290 ; R. M. 8., 1424-1513, No. 2737.
= Exchequer Rolls, xii. 717.
« Earh of Haddingtm, Sir Wm. Fraser, ii. 247.
THE BINNINGS 137
a title,^ having redeemed part at any rate of Easter Bin-
ning, which she then sold to William Hamilton in Pardovan.^
She was soon afterwards succeeded by David, presumably
her uncle, who was the last laird of the name, and may
have been, as the pedigree states, the father of Thomas
Binning of Carlowriehaugh, with whom continuous history
begins.
The lands passed to the Bruces of Wester Binning; who
about the year 1600 sold the whole lands of Binning, East,
West, and Middle, to Lord Advocate Sir Thomas Hamilton,
afterwards first Earl of Haddington.^ In 1606 the free barony
of Binning was erected by the King, and still gives the title
to the Earl's eldest son.
Thomas BmNmo was a retainer of Lord Torphichen,*
and was rewarded for his services with a feu of the lands
and dwelling-house of Carlowriehaugh near Kirkliston in
Linhthgowshire. The charter was granted on September
4, 1571, and was confirmed by King James VT. on January
9, 1573.5 The feu-duty was £3 Scots.
Thomas Binning married Catharine, daughter of William
Livingstone of EgUsmachan, Inghsmauchans or Ecclesmachan
(as it is variously spelt), near Bathgate in Linhthgowshire,
and Margaret Crawford his wife. William Livingstone had
evidently sided with Queen Mary's party in the Civil War,
and on May 6, 1572 his allegiance to King James was accepted
by the Privy Council.®
Thomas Binning seems not to have hved at Carlowrie-
haugh, but continued at Torphichen, where he died on
February 17, 1606, survived by his widow, and by three sons
— James, his successor, WiUiam and Thomas — and a daughter
1 Exchequer Rolls, xvi. 546. ^ ^_ j^j^ g^^ 1546-80, No. 1446.
3 Earls of Haddington, Sir Wm. Fraser, i. 160.
♦ P. C. R., xiv. 327. 5 jj. jjf. s., 1546-80, No. 2107.
• P. C. R., ii. 728.
138 THE BINNINGS
Agnes. His will, which was made four days before his
death, was signed for him by the Minister of the Evangel
at Torphichen, as he could not write, and is a pathetic docu-
ment.^ He appeals to his wife, who has right to all his
movable goods, ' which are verie meine, for God's caus, for
the love she bears me and hir motherlie affectioune to hir
awin bairnes to content hirself with ane p*, and to set apairt
ane other portioun for behoof of my saids bairns, but speciallie
of Agnes my dochter, who now is come to ane woman, that
she may by that moyen [means] be provided when God shall
after occasion.' He appoints his wife and his son James
to be his executors, and James and Robert Livingstone, her
brothers, with his son James to be tutors and overseers to the
yovmger children, and he leaves a legacy of £20 to his sister
Elspeth.
Thomas, one of the younger sons, became a tailor biirgess
of Edinburgh, and had a son Thomas and a daughter Sarah,
who married Alexander Brand of Redhall.
James Binning, who was a merchant in Edinburgh, got
a charter of confirmation of CarloAvriehaugh on March 25,
1635,^ but he is there described as ' indweller in Fuird of
Cranstoun Riddell,' which is mentioned in the report on
Cranston parish as ' a pendicle quhilk the said James had
of umqie M'GUl of Cranstoun Riddell and yit hes for twelff
schilingis be yeir.' ^ Cranston is in Midlothian on the western
slope of the Lammermoors.
James Binning was twice married. On September 20, 1618
he married Marion, daughter of Addinstone of Addinstone,
and had by her three sons — James, Thomas and Robert —
and two daughters, Catherine and Margaret.* She died in
1 Edinburgh Testaments, January 31, 1611.
2 R. M. S., 1634-51, No. 299.
3 Reports on Parishes (Maitland Club), p. 51.
* Edinburgh Testaments, November 18, 1635.
THE BINNINGS 139
March 1635, and on April 26, 1636 he married Euphemia,
daughter of BaiUie of Jerviston, and had an only son,
WiHiam, afterwards Sir WiUiam Binning of WaUyford. The
second Mrs. Binning died at her house in Niddry's Wynd, and
was buried at Greyfriars on April 27, 1670. The BaiUies of
Jerviston were cadets of the BaiUies of Carphin, from which
place Jerviston is only three-quarters of a mile distant to the
north-west. 1
James Binning died on February 22, 1663. His monument
in old Cranston chvirchyard designed him as ' ex veteri
Binninorum familia legitime oriundus.' ^ The stone has now
disappeared or become obliterated. Of his first family,
nothing is known of Robert and Thomas, except that they
died without issue. Catherine was the second wife of
Laurence Scott of Bavelaw,^ and Margaret was twice married,
first to WiUiam Ross of Swanston, and secondly to John
Craig, son of Sir Thomas Craig of Riccarton, King's Advocate.
She had one daughter by each husband — both named Catha-
rine. Catharine Ross married Henry HamUton, son of the
first Lord Belhaven, and Catharine Craig married Mr. Andrew
Lumsden, Bishop of Edinburgh.
James, the eldest son of James Binning of Carlowriehaugh,
became an advocate, and in Jmie 1674 was ' outed ' for seven
months along with about fifty of his brethren for claiming
the right to appeal cases from the Court of Session to the
King in ParUament.* He was admitted a burgess and guUd
brother of Edinburgh on February 2, 1676, probably as an
acknowledgment of his independence. He seems to have
sold Carlowriehaugh, and he died in 1681. He married
Margaret Bumet (contract dated December 21, 1670), and
' MacGibbon and Ross, Castellated and Domestic Architecture, iii. 475.
2 Maidment, Analecta, ii. 38.
^ Inqwisiliones Generales, 8160, 8051, 8052.
* Cakiidar of State Papers {Domestic), 1673-75, p. 544.
140 THE BINNINGS
had two sons;! (1) John, a merchant in Edinburgh, who
left an only son John, who died as a chUd in 1699, and
(2) James, a writer, who left no issue. The representation
of the family thus devolved upon his half-brother, Sir
William.
1 Edinburgh Testaments, April 16, 1700, and December 26, 1702.
CHAPTER XV
SIR WILLIAM BINNING
William Binning was born on March 11, 1637, when his
father was fifty-seven and his mother fifty years of age. He
was apprenticed on January 10, 1655 to Alexander Brand,
merchant, afterwards of RedhaU,^ whose wife was Sarah,
daughter of Thomas Binning, William's xmcle. On April
27, 1664 he was admitted a burgess and gmld brother of
Edinburgh in right of his wife EUzabeth Scott, whose father,
Laurence Scott of Bavelaw, was a biirgess, and he became a
wealthy and successful merchant. His business was primarily
that of a linen manufacturer, but he was also a financier
and a contractor with Government. When Holyrood was
being rebuilt in Charles n.'s time, he was paid £2212, 16s.
Scots for ' 29 dozain of great Geasts [joists] furnished and
delyvered in by him to the works at the Pallace, March 3,
1679.' 2
He had trading relations with foreign parts, and visited
Paris and HoUand on business or legal quests. ^ During the
two wars with the Netherlands he helped to fit out privateers
in company with Sir Robert Baird of Saughton and Sir Robert
Barclay of Perceton.
One of his factories was Paul's Work at the foot of Leith
Wynd, originally an institution founded in 1479 by Thomas
Spence, Bishop of Aberdeen, for the discipUne of idle vaga-
1 State Papers (Domestic), Add. 1660-70, p. 475 ; Edinburgh Marriage Register.
2 The King's Master Masons, R. S. Mylne, p. 200.
' Fountainhall, Decisions, i. 478, 646.
142 SIR WILLIAM BINNING
bonds. It was rebuilt in 1619, when it was established as a
woollen factory, where poor boys chosen by the magistrates
were educated and taught the trade. During the Civil War
it was used as a hospital for General Leslie's army.
In 1683 Sir WiUiam Binning and his partners took a sub-
lease of it, changed it from a woollen into a linen factory, and
ignoring the charitable design conducted it as a business
undertaking. The City authorities raised an action to get
the lease cancelled, but after a number of oscillating decisions
in the Court of Session they failed. ^
The subsequent history of Paul's Work was that in the
eighteenth century it became a bridewell or house of correc-
tion, and from 1806 it was used for the BaUantyne Press,
where Sir Walter Scott's works were printed. ^ The site is
now covered by the goods sheds of the North British
Railway.
At Michaelmas 1666 William Binning was elected to the
Town Council, and in 1668 he became City Treasurer and
held the post for three years. He was then a Bailie for a
year, and for the next two years a Councillor. At Michael-
mas 1675 he was elected Lord Provost, and held office for
two years. In 1677 and 1678 he was again elected a
Coimcillor, his last appearance at the Council being on
September 30, 1679. In January 1677, while Lord Provost,
he was knighted by the Earl of Rothes, Chancellor of Scot-
land, on a warrant signed by Charles ii. at Whitehall on
January 8.^
At the very outset of his term of office he protested against
having to give precedence to the Bishop of Edinburgh at a
visitation of the CoUege, and the protest was supported by
the unanimous vote of the Council.*
1 Morison, Dictumary, p. 9107 ; FountainhaU, Decisions, i. 637, 666, 709 ; ii. 17.
2 The Ballantyne Press, p. 17.
3 Calendar of State Papers {Domestic), 1676-77, p. 499.
* Edinburgh Council Registers, xsviii. 115.
SIR WILLIAM BINNING 143
A more notable incident was a riot, which took place in
1677, and is thus described by Lauder of Fountainhall : ^
' 29 May 1677. This being the day both of His Majesty's
birth and happy Restoration, the Magistrats of Edinburgh,
thinking theirby to gain the reputation of loyalty and to
make a parade and muster during the tyme of their adminis-
tration, resolved to make a solemne and publict weapon-
shawing of the merchand and trades youths, casten in two
companies, and of the train'd bands of the towne consisting
of sixteen companies.' They were reminded that in 1666 a
similar ' weapon-shawing ' had led to rioting and extra-
vagance, so they resolved to limit it to the merchants and
delay the trades till another time. The latter in great indig-
nation attacked the merchants at a prehminary parade, and
a serious uproar resulted. Provost Binning, after consulta-
tion with the Privy Council and other authorities, sent for
the King's troop of thirty horse, who charged the mob and
shot some of them fatally.
The trades refused to give way, and claimed their right
to appear in the procession : ' wheirupon the Magistrats
being frighted complyed so far with their insolencies . . .
that they pittifuUy past from all their former acts and pro-
clamations, and consented the trades youths should muster
likewayes.'
The Privy CouncU were of opinion that the whole cere-
mony should be abandoned, ' but the Magistrats, knowing
that to discharge it was a downright reflection on their con-
duct, delt with great earnestnesse with my Lord Chancelor
and other members (whom they treated and feasted) to give
way to it, and offer' d to engage their whoUe estate if their
should be the leist disorder committed.'
On the actual day rioting was with great difficulty pre-
vented.
As Lord Provost it was Binning's duty to give Admiralty
' Historical Notices (Bannatyne Club), i. 151.
144 SIR WILLIAM BINNING
passes in the south of Scotland to ships going abroad, and
when his successor, Francis Kinloch, came into office, he
petitioned the Privy CouncU to be allowed to continue the
duty, ' since he was knowen, and the present Provest was
not versant in such affairs, and the Councell granted it, tho'
their owne former act bore they should be subscrjrved by the
Provest for the tyme being ; but this was a bafle to Francis
Kinloch in the very entry of his office.' ^
Binning's later years were disfigured by several notorious
acts of bribery and corruption, which were a scandal even
in a generation not squeamish about public moraHty ;
perhaps the worst feature of his conduct was that he tried
to cheat his associates. Peculation was the natural result
of municipal training : the Provost's remuneration was
made up of gratuities paid by those who obtained lucrative
offices, or feus and tacks of lands, houses, shops, or other
branches of the city's revenue. It was not tiU 1718 that
the practice was aboHshed, and a salary of £300 was voted.^
In August 1682 the Brewers of Edinburgh made a com-
plaint to the Privy Covmcil against Sir John Young, Sir
William ' Binnie,' Sir James Dick, Robert Miln of Barnton
and Magnus Prince, who farmed the excise and ale taxes in
Edinburgh and the Lothians. The grounds of complaint were
that they oppressed and overvalued the Brewers, that they
forced the Brewers to buy bear (barley) from them at
exorbitant rates, and that they procured their tack by
attempting to bribe the Treasurer Depute, Lord Halton
(afterwards Earl of Lauderdale), who was one of the Com-
missioners of Excise, with a gift of 14,000 merks.
The accused were found guilty and ordered to forfeit the
14,000 merks ; ^ ' and in regard the said Sir WiUiam Binnie and
Robert Miln's parts by the probation appeared to be heUish
^ Fountainhall, Historical Notices, i. 177.
2 Historical Sketch of the Municipal Cmistitution of Edinburgh, 1826, p. xxxvi.
2 Fountainhall, Decisions, i. 189.
SIR WILLIAM BINNING 145
and foul, and that they prevaricated m their depositions,
and that they confess they received that sum from the
rest to be given as a bribe to the Treasurer Depute, and that
he refused to accept of it, and yet they keeped it up, and
concealed the same as if it had been received, and made the
rest believe that Halton had taken it, till after the intenting
of the process, and that they had in a high measure abused
and traduced the said Treasurer Depute in his fame, honour,
and reputation being a Privy Coimcillor and Officer of State :
therefore the Secret Council for their personal crime fined
the said Sir WiUiam Binnie in 9000 merks, and the said
Robert Miln (whose house in Leith had been burnt a night
or two before) in 3000 merks, and this over and above the
said 14,000 merks whereof they were to pay their shares.'
Sir William Binning, in partnership with Sir Robert
Dickson and Sir Thomas Kennedy, also farmed the customs
and foreign excise for five years from 1693 at £20,300 per
armum, and he and his friends again got into trouble for
taking the opposite view of bribery in relation to this con-
tract. ^ They objected to a charge of £2000 for wines to be
given as gratuities to the officers of state, and Dickson
appealed to the King's protection. So far from getting
sympathy, he was promptly charged with traducing these
high officials, those charges being a customary and recog-
nised form of extortion, and he had to purge his offence by
asking pardon on his knees.
The moral of this incident for Binning and his friends
was that the exposure of bribery in others was as bad a crime
as bribery itself.
He managed to combine both offences in another notorious
transaction.^ In 1693, along with Alexander Brand of Brands-
field and Sir Thomas Kennedy, he contracted to supply
1 Edinburgh Merchants and Merchandise in Old Times, Robert Chambers (Adv. Lib.
Pamphlets, jg^).
^ Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland, iii. 176.
T
146 SIR WILLIAM BINNING
the Government with 5000 stands of firelocks at £1 each.
Brand went abroad to buy them, and wrote that 26s. was
the lowest price at which they could be sold so as to yield
a profit. In order to induce the Privy Council to give the
extra price Kennedy and Binning contracted with Brand
that they would offer a bribe of two hundred and fifty
guineas to the Earls of Linlithgow and Breadalbane.
In point of fact no such sums were paid to the two noble-
men, ' they being persons of that honour and integrity that
they were not capable to be imposed on that way.' Never-
theless Kennedy and Binning disclosed the contract in a
subsequent action in the Court of Admiralty, ' to the great
slander and reproach of the said two noble persons.' For the
combined offences of contriving bribery and defaming these
noble personages they were fined — Kennedy £800, Binning
£300, and Brand £500, and were committed to prison till
payment was made.
Lord Polwarth, afterwards Earl of Marchmont, wrote
on March 25, 1697 to Lord Tullibardine, who had asked him
to use his influence on behalf of the culprits : ^ ' As to the
bribery business, I wrote fully before, and have nothing to
add. Sir WiUiam B. is, as all think, the least guilty of the
three ; yet his guilt is too deep ; he is my kinsman, but the
person is unhappy of my kin, that is guilty of any baseness ;
for I have no countenance either to plead for any such, or
to bid another do it.'
Six years later Burning actually sued Brand for his third
of the £1500 profit on the firelocks. ^ Brand replied that
such a dishonest contract ought not to be enforced, and that
Sir WiUiam Binning and Sir Thomas Kennedy were ' infamous
cheats, not worthy to be conversed with, and who ought to
be ashamed to show their faces in public again.' The taunt
received additional point from the fact that Binning and
^ The Marchmont Papers, Rose, iii. 132.
2 Pountainhall, Decisions, ii. 191.
SIR WILLIAM BINNING 147
Brand had married half-sisters, the daughters of Laurence
Scott of Bavelaw.
The Court held that, as Brand was equally guilty, these
' reflecting indiscreet expressions ' went beyond the limits
of fair pleading, so they protected Binning' s reputation by
fining Brand 900 merks, ' to be apphed to pious uses,' and
committing him to prison till he paid the fine and craved
pardon of both the bench and the aggrieved parties.
The result of the action was that Brand had to pay Binning
£416, 13s. 4d., and an appeal to the House of Lords failed.^
In 1675 Sir William Binning bought the estate of WaUy-
ford, extending to eleven oxengates of land forming part of
the estate of Inveresk, within the lordship and regality of
Musselburgh. It lies on the eastern boundary of Midlothian
about half a mile from the sea. The lands had originally
been a grant to the Abbey of DunfermUne by Malcolm
Canmore (1057-1093), and were included in its possessions
down to the Reformation. The coal workings at Wallyford
are mentioned in the Abbey rent roll of 1561,^ but a little
later they passed to James Richardson of Smeaton, and
for some years previous to Sir William Binning' s piu-chase
WaUjrford had been possessed by the Paips or Popes, ^ a
family of lawyers.
In 1587 King James vi. bestowed the regality of Mussel-
burgh upon his Chancellor, Sir John Maitland,* ancestor
of the Duke of Lauderdale from whom Binning got a charter
in 1677. Soon after that Lauderdale sold the superiority
of most of the lands of Inveresk to Sir Robert Dickson of
Carberry, and on September 23, 1702, on Carberry resigning
the superiority of Walljrf ord. Sir William Binning was granted
a Crown charter of the lands with the teinds and with heritable
* House of Lords' Journals, xix. 135.
- Registrum de Dunfermelyn (Bannatyne Club), 446.
3 Laing Charters, 2546 ; Fountainhall, Journals (Scot. Hist. Soc), p. 190 ; P. C. R,,
3rd Series, ii. 551. « R. M. S., 1580-93, No. 1305.
148 SIR WILLIAM BINNING
jurisdiction over all oJBEences except the four pleas of the
Crown.
The mansion-house, which was destroyed by fire about
1890, was a good example of seventeenth century work ;
a plain, E-shaped buUding with a fine Renaissance doorway
bearing the date 1672, which was no doubt the year when
the house was finished.^
The Binnings' town house was the fifth story above the
street in Parliament Close, ^ which ran from the High Street
to the Cowgate to the east of the Parliament House. The
whole close was burnt down in February 1700, and the family
moved to a house in the Canongate, which by a piece of ill
fortvme was burnt down too in 1708.*
Sir WiUiam Binning was a Commissioner of Supply for
Midlothian in 1678, 1685, 1689, 1690 and 1696, and for both
Midlothian and East Lothian in 1704 ; * he was appointed a
J.P. for Midlothian in 1708, and in 1672 he was one of the
nine burgess representatives on the Commission for Plantation
of Kirks. He was a seat-holder in the Tron ELirk.^
His politics may be inferred from the fact that in July
1681 he was on the great assize which convicted on a process
of error the jury which had previously acquitted certain
prisoners charged with complicity in the murder of Arch-
bishop Sharp and the Bothwell Bridge rising ; ^ and in
February 1683 he was on the jury that convicted Lawrie or
Weir of Blackwood, factor on the Douglas estates, for treason
in befriending the Covenanters in Lanarkshire. He was
also one of the jury that in 1693 convicted Charles Lord
1 MacGibbon and Ross, Castellated and Domestic Architecture, iv. 64.
2 Memorials of Edinburgh, Sir Daniel Wilson, 1891, i. 267.
^ ' Mags, of Musselburgh v. WaUyford ' (Session Papers, Town Gerk's Office, Mussel-
burgh).
« Thomson's Acts, viii. 79 (a), 223 (6), 464 (a) ; ix. 69 (a), 137 (o) ; xi. 139 (a), 140 (a) ;
Adv. Lib. Pamphlets, vol. 22, No. 143.
s The Tron Kirk, Rev. D. Butler, p. 235.
« Howell, State Trials, xi. 91, 95 ; ix. 1040.
FAMILY OF SIR WILLIAM BINNING 149
Fraser of high treason, for being present at the Cross of
Fraserburgh the previous year when King James and the
pretended Prince of Wales were proclaimed, and for drinking
their healths. The prisoner was fined £200 sterhng.^
He seems to have been in great request as a juror, for
in Jime 1693 he was summoned for the trial of Kenneth,
Earl of Seaforth, for treason, and in February 1697 he was
chancellor of the assize who convicted Sir Godfrey M'Culloch
of murdering his neighbour, WiUiam Gordon, a claimant
to his estate of Cardoness in Galloway. ^ M'Culloch was
executed at the Cross of Edinburgh.
Sir William Binning died on January 8, 1711 aged seventy-
three, and was buried at Gre3^riars. He was twice married.
His first wife, whom he married in December 1662, and by
whom he had a large family, was Elizabeth, daughter of
Laurence Scott of Bavelaw.^ She died in December 1698
aged fifty-nine.
His second wife, whom he married in April 1701, was
Mary Livingstone, widow of James Menzies of CoulteraUers
in Lanarkshire, by whom she had had a son and a daughter.
She survived her second husband, but had no family by him.
After his death she succeeded to the estate of her brother
George Livingstone of Saltcoats near Gullane in East Lothian.*
Sir WilHam Binning's family by his first wife consisted of
Eupham, born January 1664, died November 1665 ; Laurence,
born November 1665 ; Catherine, born February 1667 ; James
and William, ' twaines,' born July 1669, James dying October
1689; Hew, born October 1670 and died young; Charles,
father of Mrs. David Inglis and grandfather of Mrs. Alexander
Monro (Secundus), born November 1674 ; and Richard, who
died June 1696.
' Arnot, Criminal Trials, p. 76.
^ History of Galloway, Wm. Mackenzie, ii. App. p. 54.
' See Chaps. xviii.-xx. ' Services of Heirs, 1700-09.
150 FAMILY OF SIR WILLIAM BINNING
Catherine, Sir William Binning's second daughter, married
on February 13, 1697 William Baird, second son of Sir
Robert Baird of Saughton, and had four sons and seven
daughters. One of the sons, WiUiam, succeeded as heir to
his cousin. Sir John Baird of Newbyth, and was the father
of Sir David, the hero of Seringapatam.
Laurence, the eldest son, was educated at Edinburgh
University and graduated M.A. in 1686. Following his
father's example he speculated in farming the Edinburgh
excise duties on ale for the two years 1 706-8. ^ They were
knocked down to him at a public roup for £57,200 per annum.
He died of a high fever on May 17, 1708, and was buried in
' Bavelaw's Ground ' in Greyfriars Churchyard. He had
married on September 24, 1697 Margaret, daughter of Sir
David Hume of Crossrig, one of the Lords of Session, and
had two daughters, EUzabeth, who died on February 4, 1746,
and Jean : they are mentioned in a list of leading Whig ladies
in Edinburgh society in 1745.
After Sir William's death, the property, which was destined
to heirs male, went to his son William, the ' twaine,' who
was also a graduate of Edinburgh (M.A. 1688). He married
(contract dated March 25, 1709) Isobel, daughter of John
Dundas of Duddingston near South Queensferry, and had
three sons, WiUiam, John, and Laurence, and a daughter Ann,
who died on January 29, 1786. They were aU unmarried.
William the younger, who succeeded his father about
1735, was admitted an advocate on December 20, 1740 and
had a good practice, his most celebrated case being the trial
of Lord Provost Stewart, for whom he was junior counsel.
He sold Wallyford to James Finlay about the year 1755.
He was for many years a director of the Bank of Scotland,
and an original manager of the Society, founded, in 1773,
for the Relief of the Honest and Industrious Poor.
' Advocates' Lib. Pamphlets, vol. 24, No. 165.
FAMILY OF SIR WILLIAM BINNING 151
He died at his house in Argyle Square, Edinburgh ^ on
February 2, 1791, aged eighty-one, leaving a trust deed, by
which he disponed all his means — some £13,700 — to Dr.
Alexander Monro (Secundus), with directions to him to buy
heritage and entail it on his second son David, on condition
that he assumed the surname and arms of Binning, in accord-
ance with a wish expressed by his grandfather Sir WiUiam.
In the event of the failure of David, the next heirs of entail
were to be Alexander Monro {Tertius) and his famUy, and
then the second, third, and fourth sons of WiUiam Baird of
Newbyth, WiUiam Binning's cousins.
Accordingly in November 1794 Dr. Monro bought the
property of Wester Softlaw close to Kelso, obtained a Crown
charter,^ and executed the deed of entail in July 1796^ on
his son David coming of age.
Wester Softlaw, which extended to about 500 acres and
included a mansion-house and garden,* had formed part of
the barony of Cavers possessed by the Carre famUy.^ John
Carre sold it in 1779 to John Proctor,® from whom Dr. Monro
bought it.
' Edinburgh Courant, February 3, 1791.
2 G. R. S., March 17, 1796.
* Reg. of Entails, July 9, 1796.
* Edinburgh Courant, January 19, 1778.
' R. M. S., December 1, 1671.
« Boolis of C. and S., December 16, 1794.
CHAPTER XVI
CHARLES BINNING OF PILMUIR
Charles Binning, fifth son of Sir William Binning, was born in
November 1674, and was admitted an advocate on January 29,
1698. In January 1721 he was appointed Solicitor-General
in conjimction with the Hon. John Sinclair, advocate,^ in
Sir Robert Walpole's administration, but he never had a
seat in Parhament. The Duke of Roxburghe was Secretary
of State for Scotland, and Robert Dimdas, afterwards the
first Lord President of the name, was Lord Advocate.
The governing group, which also included the Lord
Justice Clerk, Erskine of Grange, and was commonly known
as ' The Squadrone,' did not retain its influence long, but was
abruptly overthrown in May 1725.^ The Government was
highly unpopular in Scotland owing to two acts ; one the
introduction of the malt tax, and the other the proposal
for the disarmament of the Highlands, a measure suggested
by General Wade to prevent a repetition of the rising of 1715.
The Lord Advocate was discovered to be abetting the oppon-
ents of the malt tax,^ and the Secretary of State fell under
a hke suspicion, so Walpole dismissed the whole ' Squadrone,'
including Charles Binning, and formed a coahtion with the
Duke of Argyll, who was for many years the most powerful
man in Scotland.
Binning never again held a Crown appointment, but
he remained an active member of the Faculty of Advocates
1 Edinburgh Courant, January 23, 1721. ~ Lockhart Papers, ii. 156.
' Wodrow, Analecta (Maitland Club), iii. 209 ; Caledonian Mercury, June 3, 1725.
CHARLES BINNING OF PILMUIR 153
during his sixty years at the bar, and was continuously
for a long period on the Dean's and Treasurer's Councils.
In November 1755 it was necessary for the Faculty to
appoint a Vice-Dean, as the Dean, Robert Dundas, afterwards
the second Lord President, was often absent ia London on
his parhamentary duties ; and Charles Binning, then eighty-
one years of age, was unanimously chosen.^ He was re-
elected each year until 1758, and presided at most of the
Facidty meetings down to August 1757.
In January 1722 he bought from Andrew Ker of Moriston
the ' five-pound lands ' of Pilmuir, Blackchester, Muirhouse
of Halkerland, Little Laurenceland and Scottscroft, lying
in the parish of Lauder, together with the lands of CoUielaw,
Bowerhouse, and Howden or WiselawmiU in the parish of
Channelkirk,2 ^j^g price paid being £51,733 Scots. Both
properties were in the baiUery of Lauderdale and county of
Berwick. PUmxiir is about two miles north-west of Lauder,
and CoUielaw a httle fiirther to the north, on the hills forming
the west side of the glen.
Pilmuir with its pertinents had formed part of the posses-
sions of the Pringles or Hoppringles of SmaiUiolm and
Galashiels, from the middle of the fifteenth century down
to 1632,3 -v^iien Sir James Pringle sold it to John, eighth
Lord Hay of Yester, afterwards first Earl of Tweeddale.
The first conventicle held in Lauderdale took place at Pilmuir
in 1674,* by which time the property had been acquired by
the Kers of Moriston,^ a powerful Presbyterian family.
CoUielaw and Bowerhouse had belonged to the Borth-
wicks as far back as 1473, when WiUiam, second Lord
Borthwick granted them to his son Thomas,^ but they passed
'■ Faculty Minutes, Advocates' Library.
2 Books of C. and S. (Dalrymple), May 1, 1723.
= R. M. S., 1424-1513, No. 968 ; 1620-33, No. 2060.
* Lauder and Lauderdale, A. Thomson, p. 168.
' Inquisitiones, Berwick, No. 426.
« n. M. S., 1424-1513, No. 1130.
U
154 CHARLES BINNING OF PILMUIR
out of that family at the end of the following century owing
to the extravagance of James, the eighth Baron, who ' said
all,' 1 and died in December 1599. On May 15, 1601 George
Heriot of Collielaw served heir to his brother Peter Heriot
in Leith.2 In 1631 one Andrew Law is described as ' heritor
of the lands of Bourhouses,' and also possesses two-thirds
of Collielaw, but two years later these lands had all passed
to the Kers of Moriston. In October 1633 Anna Heriot,
daughter of the deceased Robert Heriot of Trabroune, is
served heir to the remaining third of CoUielaw in succession
to James Heriot of Trabroune her great-grandfather. ^ In
1691 Brown of Coalston is said to be proprietor, but ulti-
mately it also passed to the Kers, from whom Charles Binning
acquired the whole.
The Mill of Nether Howden or Wiselawmill was held by
the Carres of Cavers for many generations as vassals first of
the Abbey of Kelso* and afterwards of the King.^ The
Kers of Roxburgh held it from 1607 till 1647, when John
Aitchison, advocate, and James his son got the hferent and
fee respectively, and they were succeeded by one William
Htuiter, who in 1722 disponed the arable lands to Charles
Binning.
Charles Binning also bought ' the four merk lands of
the Kirklands of Lauder called Over Shielfield and teinds of
the samen,' which had originally belonged to the Abbey of
Dryburgh, and at the Reformation had been included in
the temporal lordship of Cardross in favour of John Earl of
Mar,® whose relatives, the Erskines, had been from time
immemorial Commendators of the Abbey. David, second
Lord Cardross, was the son of Henry Erskine, second son
1 Colville's Letters (Bannatyne Club), 352.
2 History of Channelkirk, Rev. Arch. Allan, pp. 489-91, 583 ; Inquisiiiones, Berwick,
No. 22.
* Inquisiiiones, Berwick, No. 192. * History of Channelkirk, p. 611.
* Ih., 1593-1608, No. 1462. • R. M. S., 1609-20, No. 301.
CHARLES BINNING OF PILMUIR 155
of Lord Mar, and served heir to his grandfather in 1637,
Over Shielfield being specially mentioned.^ While the
Erskines kept the superiority, the property passed through
several hands.^ In 1638 John Home, merchant in Edinburgh,
served heir to his father, also John Home, in the four merk
land of Over Shielfield, and by 1687 it had passed to the
Kers of Moriston, who sold it to Charles Binning.
On February 27, 1722 Charles Binning got a charter of
novodamus under the Great Seal erecting all his lands into
the barony of Pilmuir, which carried a vote for the county
of Berwick. It extended to about 2000 imperial acres.
On May 28, 1724 he granted a feu charter to James Fair-
grieve 3 conveying the lands of CoUielaw, with tower, f ortaUce,
manor-place and haill pertinents, extending to 412 Scots
acres (about 500 imperial), together with the teinds, the feu-
duty being £21 sterhng.^ On July 29, 1757 Fairgrieve
conveyed these lands to George Adinstoun of Carcant.
In 1743 Charles Binning also feued to one John Thomson
the lands of Nether Bowerhouse with the teinds for a feu-
duty of £10, 5s. 6d., again reserving the superiority, and
also the dominium utile of Over Bowerhouse.
From 1713 till his death he lived in a town house which
he bought in 1721 from the creditors of his wife's uncle, John
Montgomery of Wrae, W.S.^ It was the second story of a
stone tenement called Fisher's Land on the south side of the
Lawnmarket at the ' Spread Eagle,' a httle above Old Bank
Close.
Charles Binning was evidently a man of wide interests
and activities. He was a member of the Hon. Society of
Improvers in Agriculture, and of the Copartnery of Free-
men Burgesses for establishing a Fishing Company, and he
1 Inquisitiones, Bermck, No. 221. ^ ffistory of Channdkirl; p. 617.
» lb., pp. 492, 583. * Edinburgh AdveHiser, April 3, 1770.
5 Edinburgh Protocols, 4 Home, 157, 5 Watt, March 21, 1721 ; ScoU Courant, July 16,
1716 ; Edinburgh Courant, November 16, 1758.
156 CHARLES BINNING OF PILMUIR
was for many years a director of the Bank of Scotland. He
was appointed by the Faculty of Advocates one of the
managers of the Charity Workhouse, and he was an original
trustee of George Watson's Hospital.^ He helped to frame
the original scheme of trust in 1724 and the revised statutes
issued in 1740.
He married in July 1706 Margaret, daughter of Hew
Montgomery of Broomlands,^ and had one son, WiUiam, born
August 27, 1716, and six daughters — Jean, born October 11,
1709, died Jime 1, 1710; Katharine, born May 9, 1711;
Barbara, born Jiuie 1712, died February 9, 1713; Isobel,
Ehzabeth, and Margaret, who was born December 12, 1717.
Charles Binning died at Broomlands on September 15,
1758.^ Of the daughters three only survived him — (1)
Katharine (mother of Mrs. Alexander Monro, Secundus), who
married on June 5, 1738 David Inglis, afterwards Treasurer
of the Bank of Scotland, and died December 14, 1769;
(2) Isobel, who died unmarried on July 28, 1806 ; * and (3)
iSlizabeth, who married in July 1744 as his second wife Andrew
Buchanan of DrumpeUier, merchant, who had been Provost of
Glasgow 1740-1. She died at Edinburgh in 1782 without
issue, having siu:vived her husband for twenty-three years.
The son, WiUiam Binning, died before his father. He
was admitted an advocate on December 8, 1739, and in
March 1750 married Ehzabeth, youngest daughter of Archi-
bald Stewart of Torrance, Writer to the Signet. In order
to provide for them Mr. Charles Binning disponed Pihnuir
to his son, who went with his wife to hve there, but died in
August 1751, leaving an infant son, Charles, born March 29
of that year.6 The child died in 1754.
1 George Watson's Hospital, 1740 (Adv. Lib. Pamphlets, jj-^).
^ See Chapter xvii.
^ Caledonian Mercury, September 21, 1768.
* Edinburgh Courant, August 2, 1806.
° Campbell's Session Papers (Adv. Lib.), vi. 61.
CHARLES BINNING OF PILMUIR 157
Charles Bimiing's three daughters then succeeded to the
property, but it turned out that WiUiam Binning had con-
tracted large debts vinknown to his father, so in 1761 the
barony was advertised for sale by the Covirt at the instance
of the creditors, the rent bemg stated at £1424 Scots. ^ It
was bought by Adam Fairholm, banker in Edinburgh,
whose representatives sold it in 1770 to James, seventh Earl
of Lauderdale. 2 Wilham's widow moved to a house in St.
Anne's Yards near Holyrood, where she lived many years.
Charles Binning was granted the WaUyford arms with a
difference in the tinctures ^ — argent, on a bend engrailed azure
a waggon of the first withm a bordure ermine.
^ Edinburgh Courant, May 9, 1761.
" Edinburgh Advertiser, April 3, 1770.
3 Nisbet, Heraldry, 1816, i. 429.
CHAPTER XVII
THE MONTGOMERYS OF BROOMLAKDS
It has already been mentioned ^ that Mrs. Charles Binning,
grandmother of Mrs. Alexander Monro (Secundus), was a
Montgomery of Broomlands.
Broomlands and Highmyre lie on the Annick Water within
a mile east of the burgh of Irvine in Ayrshire, partly in Irvine
parish and partly in Dreghom. They belonged of old to the
Peebles family, as vassals of the Lords Ross of Halkhead,
and were acquired by the Montgomerys at the end of the
sixteenth century.
The Broomlands family claimed descent from Hew, first
Earl of Eghnton, through his second son, WiUiam Mont-
gomery of Greenfield,^ who married EUzabeth, elder daughter
and heiress of Robert Francis of Stane and Bourtreehill.^
These lands lie immediately to the north of Broomlands,
and had been owned by the Francis family prior to 1417.*
WiUiam Montgomery, whose ' principall mansion ' had
been at ' Sanct Brydis Kirk,' built Stane Castle, the ruins of
which still exist, and died before September 1546, leaving
two sons, Arthur and Hew,^ and a daughter Katrine, who
married Hugh, son and successor of Adam Wallace of New-
toun. Arthixr married Lucy Carnis, daughter and co-heiress
1 Page 156.
2 Pedigree of Ramsay-Fairfax, Lyon Office.
* Paterson, History of Ayrshire, iii. Pt. 1, 275-78.
* Protocol Book of Gavin Boss (Scottish Record Sec), 366, 862.
° Protocol Book of James Harlaw, 966.
THE MONTGOMERYS OF BROOMLANDS 159
of Henry Carnis of Dalketh,^ but had no family, so he was
succeeded by his brother Hew, who sold Stane in 1570 to
the third Earl of Eglinton and acquired Auchinhood. He
married Ehzabeth, daughter of Blair of Adamtoim.
The next two steps in the descent depend upon the evi-
dence of the Ramsay-Fairfax pedigree. ^ Hew Montgomery
of Auchinhood is said to have been succeeded by his son
Neill, the first Montgomery of Broomlands, so designed in
November 1598,^ when he was cautioner for WiUiam Pringle,
litster burgess of Edinbiu-gh, and in March 1599, when he
was cited along with several other Montgomerys and Cunning-
hams to appear before the King and ' underlie such order as
is given to keep quietnes amangis thame.' It is not known
how NeUl Montgomery acquired his right to the lands, nor
its nature and extent, but it seems to have been Umited
to Nether Broomlands, and it was not till his grandson's
time that Over and Nether Broomlands were re-united.
Moreover in 1623 Marion Peebles served heiress to her father
John Peebles in the lands of both Over and Nether Broom-
lands without reservation,* so probably some right of reversion
stiU remained in the Peebles family.
According to the Ramsay-Fairfax pedigree NeiU Mont-
gomery married Janet Lindsay, and was succeeded in
Broomlands by his third son, Hew ' in Bowhouse,' who
married Margaret, daughter of Calderwood of Peacock-
bank. In 1619 Hew gave his wife the liferent and their
second son, William, the fee of a tenement on the east
side of the High Street of Irvine.^
Hew Montgomery and his descendants are commemo-
rated on the family tombstone in Irvine churchyard, erected
' Protocol Book of Gavin Ross (Scottish Record Soc), 736, 863.
2 Lyon Office. ^ p, c. E., v. 539, 709.
* Inquisiliones, Ayr, No. 226.
* ArchcBological Collections of Ayrshire and Galloway, ix. 140.
160 THE MONTGOMERYS OF BROOMLANDS
about the middle of the eighteenth century ; and the facts
stated are correct so far as they can be tested. The
longevity of the family is most remarkable. The inscription
runs : ^
' Here lyes Hugh Montgomery of Broomlands, who died
in November 1658 aged 92 years. Also Margaret Calder-
wood, his spouse. Also George Montgomery of Broomlands,
their son, who died May 6, 1700 aged 86. Also Anna Barclay
and Margaret Wallace, his spouses. Also Hugh Montgomery
of Broomlands, his son of the first marriage, who died December
3, 1728 aged 83 years, in the 55th year of his marriage with
Jean Brown, his spouse, and the said Jean Brown, who died
December 8, 1728 aged 83 years. Also Robert Montgomery
of Broomlands, their son, who died January 11, 1740 aged
63 years. Also Hugh Montgomery of Broomlands, their
son, who died February 24, 1766, in the 80th year of his age.'
These facts can be ampUfied from the pubhc records,
and from the accounts of Robertson ^ and Paterson, which
are based on the Broomlands manuscript, a genealogical
document compiled in the middle of the eighteenth century
and now in possession of Lord Eglinton.
George Montgomery (1614-1700) built the mansion-house
in 1663 : it has now disappeared. He acquired the property
of Over Broomlands with the pendicle called Rossmeadow,
formerly pertaining to Hew Montgomery of Over Broomlands
and Hew his son, and in 1680 he disponed the united property
of Over and Nether Broomlands to Hew, his eldest son,
reserving his own Uferent.^ He was acting as bailie depute
of the Regality Court of Kilwinning in 1669, and was suc-
ceeded by his son Hew, who acted down to October 1676.^
In 1690 both father and son were appointed Commissioners
1 Paterson, History of Ayrshire, iii. Pt. 1, 271.
2 Ayrshire Families, iii. 198 seq. ; Supplement, p. 62.
3 Ayrshire Saaines, vol. iv. p. 328. * Court Book (Register House).
THE MONTGOMERYS OF BROOMLANDS 161
of Supply for Ayrshire. The burgh accounts of Irvine
contain several entries referring to convivial meetings with
the magistrates : e.g.^ —
' 1686. Feb. 1. Item— The Magistratis with young
Pearstoune, old Broomlands, and Bryce Blair and the clerk
and utheris, ffyve pyntis of wyne, and for tobacco, pj^s,
and aill, 9s, inde 05 09 00.'
' December 31. Item — The Magistrats being come out of
Killwinning with Broomlands elder and yoimger, John Hay
and uther gentlemen, ane pynt of wyne and for aill tobacco
and pyps, ffourteen shilling . . . . 01 14 00.'
As stated on the tombstone George Montgomery was
twice married. His first wife, Anna Barclay, was a daughter
of Sir George Barclay of Perceton, and by her he had three
sons and a daughter, viz. (1) Hew, of Broomlands, (2) George,
who married Janet, daughter of George Garven, writer and
notary in Irvine and clerk of the bailiery of Cunningham.
George Montgomery died about 1682. George Garven was
also a tavern keeper, and his daughter succeeded to the
business, and purveyed the refreshments mentioned above. ^
(3) WiUiam, merchant in Edinburgh, and bailie of the
city in 1687.
(i) Jean, who married John Montgomery of Bridgend.
George Montgomery settled on his second and third sons
jointly the twenty shilling lands of Highmyxe, which he had
recently acquired from Mr. Robert Tran.^
He married secondly in 1655 Margaret Wallace, of the
Shewalton family, and by her also he had three sons and a
daughter :
(4) Alexander, of Assloss, who married Margaret, daughter
of Alexander Montgomery of Kirktonholme. He was tacksman
of the mills of Edinburgh in 1708,* and died on May 30, 1719.5
' Muniments of Irvine, ii. 302, 313. 2 75^ y_ 287, 302, 312.
=> G. R. 8., April 13, 1653. « Morison's Dictionary, 2498.
^ Edinburgh Testaments, November 4, 1719.
X
162 THE MONTGOMERYS OF BROOMLANDS
(5) John, of Wrae, Linlithgowshire, and Auchinhood,
Renirewshire, admitted a Writer to the Signet in 1687, sat
in the Scots Parhament 1704-7 as Commissioner for Linlith-
gowshire, married (1) 1689, Penelope Barclay ; (2) 1696,
Janet, daughter of Thomas Gray, merchant in Edinburgh,
died March 11, 1725, aged sixty- two.
(6) James, merchant in Edinburgh, married Mary, daugh-
ter of Matthew Stewart of Newton, and died without issue.
(ii) Margaret, married her cousin, Hugh Montgomery
of Bowhouse, and died without issue.
Hew Montgomery of Broomlands (1645-1728) married
Jean, daughter and co-heiress of Robert Brown of the Moat,
afterwards called Carmelbank in Kilmaurs parish. They
are said to have had twenty or twenty-one children, of whom
sixteen used to sit at table at one time, but only seven are
known by name : —
(1) Robert, and (2) Hew, who succeeded in turn to Broom-
lands.
(3) William, sometime Comet in Brigadier Desbordes's
Regiment of Dragoons, who died at Irvine tmmarried on
October 16,^ 1729.
(4) George, who died xmmarried in Jamaica in August
1734.2
(i) Jean, who died unmarried on September 21, 1783 at
the age of ninety.
(ii) Margaret (Mrs. Charles BmNiNG).
(iii) Anne, who married Bailie Ker in Irvine, and died
without issue.
Robert Montgomery of Broomlands was comptroller of
the customs at Irvine. He married Elizabeth, daughter of
1 Glasgow Testaments, April 15, 1730.
" Edinburgh Testaments, December 14, 1743.
THE MONTGOMERYS OF BROOMLANDS 163
Alexander Cunningham of CuUellan, and died without issue
on January 11, 1740.^
His brother Hew, who succeeded to Broomlands, and was
the author of the Broomlands manuscript previously referred
to, had been Provost of Campbeltown. He married (1)
Mary, daughter of the Rev. James Boes of Campbeltown,
by whom he had a son, Charles, and three daughters; (2)
Margaret M'Laren of Money-
more, CO. Derry, who died with-
out issue.
Hew's son Charles entered
merchant burgess of Glasgow,
January 24, 1754, but four years
later emigrated to Jamaica,
where he died unmarried in
1766, a few months after his
father. The estate was adver-
tised for sale in 1768 by order
of the Court of Session to satisfy
his father's creditors, and was
bought by Mr. Hamilton of
Bourtreehill. It ultimately be-
came part of the Eglinton
estates.
The Broomlands arms are recorded in the Lyon Register
(1672-77) ^ — quarterly, first and foiu-th, azure, a palm branch
between three fleurs de lys or ; second and third, gules, three
amulets or, stoned azure : crest, a palm branch proper ;
motto, Procedamus in pace.
1 Glasgow Testaments, March 10, 1740.
2 Nisbet, Heraldry, 1816, i. 376, 377.
SCOTT PEDIGREE
Laurence, advocate, il. Dec. 1637, bought Harperrig,
Bavelaw, Clerkington^ Bonnington, etc., m. Elizabeth,
') and Alison Wallace. She
James, of Clonbeith and Scotsloch, Provost of Irvine
1633-4, d. May 1636, m. (1) Agnes Blair, who d.
Dec. 21, 1620, one daughter ; (2) Lillias Scott, three
daughters.
Sir William (Lord Clerkiuglou), d. Dec. 23, 1656, James, of
acquired Malleny, Clonbeith, and Scotsloch, m. Bonnington,
(1) Katharine, daughter of John Morison of advocate,
Prestougrange, three sons and one daughter ; Cleric of Session,
(2) Barbara, daughter of Sir John Dalmahoy, m. Violet Pringle,
six sons and five daughters. She d. March, 1684. three sons and
one daughter.
Laurence, of Bavelaw, Clerk of Session, d. Oct. 31, 1669
(1) Margaret, daughter of Stephen Boyd of Temple
(2) March 1650, Catherine, daughter of Jame;
Binning of Carlowriehaugh.
Elizabeth,
b. Nov. 1639,
d. Dec. 1698,
m. Dec. 1662, Sir
William Binning
of Wallyford, g.u.
Laurence of Bavelaw,
b. Aug. 1643,
d. s.p. 1679,
m. Jan. 16, 1670,
Margaret, daughter
of John Maxwell.
Margaret,
m. Aug. 1665,
Hugh Wallace, W.S.,
of Ingliston,
Ml
Marion, b. June 1642.
Anna, b. Oct. 1644.
Barbara, b. Jan. 1647.
Janet, b. April 1648.
All d. in infancy.
William
of Bavelaw,
advocate
b. 1657,
d. ,.p.
March 1690.
John of Bavelaw,
jui/ms.
William of Bavelaw, advocate,
m. Nov. 1721, Mary, eldest
daughter of William Foulis of
Woodhall, advocate, d. Sep. 8,
1741. I
William of Bavelaw,
d. s.p. March 5, 1747.
Laurence of Bavelaw,
b. 1736,
d. s.p. Sep. 1765.
Charles of Bavelaw, of Scots Greys and 108th Foot, b. April 8,
1738, m. March 10, 1762, Frances, daughter of John Vicaradge,
Attorney in Exchequer, with issue. Sold Bavelaw 1774, d.
circa 1784.
SCOTT PEDIGREE
Susanna,
m. James Blair,
Provost of Irvine,
two daughters.
Janet, m. John Blair,
Provost of Irvine,
who died Oct. 1628,
two daughters.
m. (1) James Scott,
two daughters ;
(2) Richard Lauder
of Hatton,
one daughter.
Margaret,
a. William Wallace
of Shewalton,
two daughters.
Agnes,
m. 1622,
Patrick Kinloch
of Alderston,
seven children.
I
Charles
of Bavelaw,
d. Dec. 1701,
m. Barbara,
daughter of John
Scott of Malleny.
She d. July 1751.
Katharine,
.. April 1651,
1. unm. after
Barbara,
b. July 1652,
m. June 1682,
Sir Roger Hog
(LordHarcarse),
d. 1685,
one daughter.
Christian,
b. Feb. 1665,
m. 1674,
Sir Alexander
Brand
of Brandsfield,
mth issue.
Janet,
b. Oct. 1659,
m. Feb. 1682,
Michael
Lumsden,
advocate,
d. Nov. 1695,
two sons and
two daughters.
Agnes,
b. Oct. 166f
m. Feb. 169
Adam
Fullarton Ann,
of Bartonholm, All d
Euphi
Mario:
H.
David
. Jan. 1654.
Aug. 1656.
b'. Sep. 1658.
, b. Oct. 1660.
). May 1662.
young.
Laurence, merchant in Glasgow
b. 1695, d. Oct. 5, 1764.
I
David.
Mary,
1. Andrew Home,
merchant in
Windyghoul.
Charles,
merchant in
Glasgow.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE SCOTTS OF BAVELAW
Elizabeth Scott, wife of Sir William Binning, was one of
the Scotts of Bavelaw, who are therefore direct ancestors of
the family of Professor Alex-
ander Monro (Secundus).
They claimed to have branched
off the Scotts of Murdostoun
before the latter family migrated
from Lanarkshire to the Borders,
and in token of the connection
they bore the Buccleuch arms
with a difference — or, on a fess
azure (instead of a bend) a star
of six points between two cres-
cents of the field ; crest, a dexter
hand holding a scroU of paper ;
motto, Facundia felix.
The Bavelaw branch can be
traced back to Hew Scott of
Scotsloch at Irvine in A3rrshire.
He was Custumar (collector of customs) of the burgh in 1589,
Bailie in 1609,^ and Provost in 1616. He was also Commis-
sioner in Parliament in 1593 and 1617,^ and Commissioner
to the Convention of Royal Burghs at various times between
1 Muniments of the Royal Burgh of Irvine, ii. 248.
" Thomson's Acts, iv. 6, 526; P. 0. R., xi. 66.
THE SCOTTS OF BAVELAW 167
1593 and 1618.^ He seems to have died in 1618 or soon
afterwards.
The Scott family had been Custumars of Irvine almost
continuously throughout the sixteenth century, frequently
Bailies, and occasionally Provosts, but there are not sufficient
materials for fixing the relationships of the various members,
A Laurence Scott owned property in Irvine as far back as
1496.2 Another Laurence Scott graduated at Glasgow in
1509.^ This may have been the same man who seven years
later had the disagreeable experience of having his banns of
marriage with Isabella ' Mungumry ' objected to by a certain
' Jonet Mur,' a widow, who maintained that the bridegroom
had promised to marry her. On being challenged before
the commissary she admitted that she had acted maliciously
and that her statement was untrue.*
Hew Scott had two sons — Laurence, afterwards of
Harperrig and Bavelaw, and James — and three daughters,
Margaret, Susanna, and ' Jonnet.'
James Scott succeeded his father as Custumar, Bailie,
and Provost (1633-4) of Irvine. In 1617, shortly before his
father's death, he bought from his brother Laurence the
latter's interest in the family property of Scotsloch,^ and in
1633 he bought the estate of Clonbeith and Damrule, three
miles north-east of Kilwinning, from Daniel Cunningham,
whose predecessors acquired it a century before from the
monastery of Kilwiiuiing.^ James Scott held it of the Earl
of EgHnton for a feu -duty of £36. He was appointed a
Justice of the Peace for Cunningham in 1634.
He was twice married — (1) to Agnes Blair, who died on
^ Exchequer Rolls, xiii.-xxii., passim.
^ Obit Book of St. John the Baptist, Ayr, ed. Jas. Paterson, p. 62.
3 Munimenta Almoe Universitatis Olasguensis, ii. 286.
^ Protocol Book of Oavin Ros (Scottish Record Soc), No. 148.
^ Archaeological Collections of Ayrshire, viii. 28, 211 ; is. 23, 280.
6 R. M. S., 1634-51, No. 1601 ; P. C. R., 2nd Ser., v. 383, 395.
168 THE SCOTTS OF BAVELAW
December 21, 1620, leaving a daughter who married Thomas
Cunningham ; ^ (2) to Lillias Scott, by whom he had three
daughters — Agnes, who married Captain Brice Blair of
Boigsyd, Margaret, who married in 1645 Mr. John Eleis,
advocate, and Lillias, who married Hugh Boyd, merchant
in Edinburgh.^
James Scott died at the end of May 1636 survived by his
wife.^
Of Hew Scott's three daughters, Margaret, the eldest,
continued to live at Scotsloch and died unmarried ; Susanna
and ' Jonnet ' married two brothers, James and John Blair
respectively.
The Blairs succeeded the Scotts as the leading family
in the mvmicipal affairs of Irvine.
John Blair, the elder brother, was Bailie for several years
and Provost at his death in October 1628. He and ' Jonnet '
Scott had two daughters, Agnes and Bessie.* In 1618 he
was commissioned by the Privy Council ^ to act as one of the
inquisitors at the trial of Margaret Barclay and John Stewart,
the Irvine witches, one of the most horrible cases in the
history of demonology in Scotland.
James Blair was also Bailie, and Provost (1646).^ He
died about 1649. He and Susanna Scott also had two
daughters — Agnes and ' Mareone.'
John and James Blair were sons of John Blair, merchant
burgess of Irvine, and grandsons of Alexander Blair, the
' goodman ' of Windyedge, who was brother - german to
the laird of Blair.'' Their mother was Elizabeth Mure, a
kinswoman of the Rowallan family. There were two other
1 Olasgow Testaments, January 9, 1623. ^ ^_ j|/, 5.^ 1634-51, No. 2182.
3 Glasgow Testaments, July 14, 1637. « lb., July 23, 1629.
5 P. C. R., xi. 367, 401 ; Sir Walter Scott, Letters on Demonology, p. 307.
* Archaological Collections of Ayrshire, viii. 75 ; ix. 101, 154.
' Life of Robert Blair (Wodrow Society), p. 112.
THE SCOTTS OF BAVELAW 169
sons, William, minister of Dumbarton, and Robert, the
famous divine ; and two daughters, Marion, who married
Walter Stewart, burgess of Irvine,^ and Agnes, presumably
the first wife of James Scott.
Mr. Robert Blair, who was bom in 1593, became minister
of St. Andrews. He was one of the commissioners sent to
arrange a treaty of peace in 1640 between Charles I. and the
Scots, and in 1646 he was appointed Chaplain-in-ordinary
to the King. He died in 1666. His elder son by his second
marriage was Mr. David Blair, one of the ministers of Edin-
burgh, who married Eupham, daughter of Archibald Nisbet
of Carphin, and was the grandfather of Lord President Blair
of Avontoun.
* Arch(Bological Collections of Ayrshire, viii. 186.
CHAPTER XIX
LAURENCE SCOTT OF HARPERRIG, DIED 1637
Laurence Scott, elder son of Hew Scott, Provost of Irvine,
was apprenticed to Robert Scott of Knightspottie in Perth-
shire, the Director of the Chancery, and after his death in
1592 to his stepson and successor, Wilham Scott of Grange-
muir, afterwards of Ardross.^
He presented the Custumars' and BaUies' accounts of
Irvine to the Exchequer in Edinburgh from 1590,^ and in
April 1591 he was conducting an action in Edinburgh for his
native town against the ' unf riemen trublaris of your
mercattis,' and wrote to the magistrates : ^ 'As for my
debursingis I will superseid the payment thairof and geving
up of my compt tiU the samyn tak ane end and find me
wirdy ane rewaird with my depursingis.'
The process dragged on for two years, but on June 24,
1593 he wrote again that he has ' gottin the gift of your
haUl imfriemen past the King, and compositioun, and that
upoun my great moyane very ressonablie. . . . Send me the
denunciatioun with the executionis bak with the first beirir,
ffor I upoun my honestie hes promeist to report bak answer
betuix this and the last day of this moneth of Junij with
the compositioun of the escheat quhUk lykwayes ye sail
send me with your beirar. ... I pray yow, Siris, be als
dihgent to keip to me as I have bene earnest to keip to yow,
1 Muniments of the Burgh of Irvine, i. 82 ; R. M. S., 1580-93, No. 1951 ; Scots
Staggering State of Scottish Statesmen, ed. Rogers, 121.
2 Exchequer Rolls, xxii. 92, 176.
^ Muniments of the Burgh of Irvine, ii. 30, 31.
LAURENCE SCOTT OF HARPERRIG 171
ffor in caice I violat promeis, I am tuichit in my honestie,
and be my promeis-making I will nocht be estemit in tymes
cuming, nathir yit will my credeit at thair handis be in ony
tyme heireftir sa far be extendit.'
In the following year he is found in conflict with the
burgh authorities.^ He had obtained from the King in
September 1594 a gift under the Privy Seal of the office of
Clerk and Town Notary of Irvine, ' with full power to creat
and substitute ane clerk under him for exerceing thairof
during quhat tyme he pleissis.'
The Magistrates naturally resented this arrangement,
and maintained that, as Irvine was a Royal Burgh, they
were entitled to appoint their own clerk. Laurence Scott
took the matter before the Court of Session, but the case was
decided against him on December 7, 1594.
In spite of this rebuff he continued on friendly terms
with the burgh. His name appears several times in the
burgh accounts in 1601 and 1602.2 jje gets 32s. 7d. 'for
the gallowus,' and sums of £30, £40 and £108, 15s. for
' services ' that are not specified. ' Laurence Scottis sone '
also gets £3, 15s. In 1601 he acted as notary in a sasine
taken by the Provost and magistrates of Irvine on a charter
by King James confirming the erection of the town into a
free Royal Burgh. He is described in the docquet as
' Glasguensis diocesis notarius publicus,' and his motto is
' Ante omnia Veritas.' ^
Laurence Scott was admitted an advocate on January 6,
1607, and enjoyed a good practice, chiefly before the Privy
CouncU. He had some sort of salary or retainer to the
extent of £240 Scots from the Earl of Eghnton,^ and one of
£400 from the Earl of Buccleuch.^
^ Muniments of the Burgh of Irvine, i. 81.
2 lb., ii. 240, 241, 244, 246. ' if,_^ j, 95^
* The Monigomeries, Earls of Eglinton, Sir Wm. Fraser, ii. 278.
5 The Scotts of Buccleuch, Sir Wm. Fraser, ii. 273.
172 LAURENCE SCOTT OF HARPERRIG
In 1617, shortly before his father's death, he sold the
fee of Scotsloch, the family property at Irvine, to his brother
James. ^ It consisted of a tenement of land in the High
Street opposite to the Sea Gate and boimded on the north-
east by Scotsloch, and also of the twenty shilling lands of
GaUowmiu-e.
Laurence Scott had already started to acquire extensive
properties in Midlothian. His first purchase was the estate
of Harperrig, of which he got a charter in May 1605 from
James, second Lord Torphichen.^
Harperrig lies in the parish of Midcalder about twelve
miles south-west of Edinburgh. It is a bare upland moor
about 900 feet above sea-level, on the western slope of the
Pentlands. It includes the source of the Water of Leith,
and now forms part of the catchment area of the reservoir
which bears its name.
Part of Harperrig was included in the barony of Calder :
the rest of the lands, called TemplehiU, had belonged to the
Knights Templars, and to their successors the Knights
Hospitallers of St. John at Torphichen. At the Reformation
James Sandilands, second son of Sir James Sandilands of
Calder, was Preceptor of Torphichen and head of the Order
in Scotland. Making a virtue of necessity he surrendered
to the Crown the possessions of the Order, and for a money
consideration was rewarded with a grant to him and his
heirs of all the lands, which were erected into the temporal
lordship of Torphichen. On his death without issue in 1579
his grand-nephew James Sandilands of Calder succeeded to
the title and lands of Torphichen. ^
The Temple lands of Harperrig are described as bounded
' by the Water of Lethensem on the north, by the Meredene
Burn on the east, and on the west by the Tempildyck which
1 Archceological Collections of Ayrshire and Oalhway, viii. 2H.
2 R. M. 8., 1609-20, No. 1790.
' History of the Parish of Midcalder, H. B. M'Call, p. 143.
LAURENCE SCOTT OF HARPERRIG 173
extends from the south to the foresaid Water of Lethensem.'
They were feued at the Reformation by Lord Torphichen
to one Thomas Cant, and remained in the Cant family for
three generations.^ In 1602 John Cant gave seisin to John
Hamilton of Bathgate,^ who in turn sold them three years
later to Laurence Scott at the same time as the latter bought
the rest of Harperrig.
The feudal lands of Harperrig lay further to the north-
west in Kirknewton parish, and consisted of Auchinoonhill,
Lyden and one-third of the runrig lands of Leithshead.^
Laurence Scott paid Lord Torphichen 3s. 4d. annually
for the Temple lands, and Id. for the rest, together with the
usual services.
In 1618 he extended his property to the north-east by
buying from Sir John Preston of Penicuik the lands of
Butelands, lying on the south side of the Water of Leith in
the parish of Currie.* They extended to 1240 Scots acres, and
consisted of the farms of ButelandhiU, Nethertoxm, Overtoun,
Loanhead, and Templehouse.^ There was no mansion-house.
Butelands can be traced as far back as December 14, 1413,
when the Regent, Robert Duke of Albany, granted the lands
on the resignation of Archibald Earl of Douglas to Margaret,
daughter of Sir WiUiam de Borthwick and widow of WiUiam
de Abemethy.^ They remained with the Borth wicks tiU
1596, when James, eighth Lord Borthwick, sold them to
Mr. John Preston of Fentonbarns,^ afterwards Sir John
Preston of Penicuik, President of the Court of Session.
He in turn sold them to Laurence Scott, who was entered as
a vassal holding direct of the Crown.
1 Maidment, Analecta, i. 397.
2 Torphichen Chartulary, Robert HiU, W.S., p. 37.
= Reports on Parishes, 1627 (Maitland Chih), p. 83.
* B. M. S., 1609-20, No. 1790.
' Edinburgh Courant, November 7, 1763.
• R M. S., 1306-1424, p. 256.
' 26., 1609-20, No. 929.
174 LAURENCE SCOTT OF HARPERRIG
In March 1628 Laurence Scott advanced his property a
stage nearer Edinburgh, by buying the neighbouring estate
of Bavelaw in the parish of Penicuik, extending to 1276
Scots acres and consisting of Easter and Wester Bavelaw
with tower, fortalice, manor place, and the right of common
pasturage on the muir of Balemo.^ The country is of the
same character as Harperrig, but rather less bleak, and
there are plantations of firs and distant views of the lowland
country. The old castle, a seventeenth century building,
stiU stands overlooking Threipmuir reservoir.^
Bavelaw has a long history. Some time previous to 1235
it was held by Sir Henry [Fairlie] de Brade as part of the
royal moor of Pentland.^ The Fairhes kept it tiU 1427,
when Helen, daughter of John Fairlie of Braid, brought it
as a marriage portion to her husband Henry Forrester of
Mddry, second son of Sir John Forrester of Corstorphine.*
Henry Forrester also owned Auchindinny and part of the
barony of RedhaU. His son. Sir John, forfeited the lands
of Bavelaw by 'recognition,' for having sold the greater
part of them without King James iv.'s permission, and on
October 14, 1516 they were granted by James v. to ' Robert
Bertoim, indweller in Leith.' ^
The Bertouns or Bartons were a famous family of sea
captains in the reigns of James in. and James iv.^ John
Barton, the foimder of the family, was a merchant trader in
Leith, and commanded the Yellow Carvel, which was called
' the King's ship ' and was captured by the Enghsh.
James iv. had great ambitions to found a royal navy,
and John Barton and his sons, Andrew, Robert and John,
were leaders in his enterprises. In 1497 Andrew and Robert
^ Thomson's Acts, v. 491.
2 MacGibbon and Ross, Castellated and Domestic Architecture, iii. 531.
' Charters of Holyrood (Bannatyne Club), p. 45.
* B. M. S., 1424-1513, No. 74.
6 lb., 1513-46, No. 46.
« Exchequer Rolls, xiii. Intr. 181 ; xiv. Intr. 93.
LAURENCE SCOTT OF HARPERRIG 175
took charge of Perkin Warbeck's passage from Ayr to Ireland
in Robert's ship, the Cuclcoo, and in the early years of the
sixteenth century the brothers were engaged in clearing the
Scottish coast of Flemish and other pirates, and in carrying
out reprisals under letters of marque against Portuguese
galleons from Africa and the Indies. These exploits brought
them into open conflict with their old enemies the English.
In July 1511 Robert Barton brought no less than thirteen
Enghsh prizes into Scottish ports, but a month later Andrew
was caught in the Downs by Sir Thomas and Sir Edward
Howard, and was killed in the engagement.
In 1513 James iv, fell at Flodden, and with him perished
all schemes for a Scottish navy. Robert Barton then entered
the royal service ashore, and was Comptroller from 1516
to 1525, and again in 1528-29 — 'ane very pyratt and sey-
revere comptroller,' as James Douglas caUs him. He was
also Custumar of Edinburgh from 1516 to 1525, and in 1529-
1530 he was Lord High Treasurer and Master of the Mint.
He died in 1538.
Robert Barton became a considerable landowner. In
1507 he obtained from King James iv. a grant of the lands of
Over Bamton, including the village of Cramond, and in
1515, as already mentioned, he acquired Bavelaw. On
January 20, 1529 these lands, together with Fulford (Wood-
houselee), were erected by King James v. into the free barony
of Over Barnton in favour of Robert Barton in liferent and
Robert his son in fee, the charter narrating ^ that the grant
was made in consideration of the elder Robert's services to
the Crown in providing ships at great expense and exposing
himself to danger for the defence of the lieges and merchants
against English and other pirates.
Robert Barton was succeeded by his son Robert, who
took the name of Mowbray on his marriage with Barbara
Mowbray, heiress of Bambougle, now part of the Dalmeny
1 R. M. 8., 1513-46, No. 801.
176 LAURENCE SCOTT OF HARPERRIG
estates. On Robert Mowbray's death about 1550 the barony
was divided among his sons, and Bavelaw fell to Archibald,
the third son. He sold it in 1557 to his eldest brother, John,
and John sold it to Sir George Dundas of that ilk.^ It was
Sir George's eldest son. Sir Walter, who disponed it to Laurence
Scott in 1628. Wester Bavelaw had been subject to a feu
right constituted by John Mowbray in favour of Sir Matthew
Stewart, whose grandson WiLliani, second Lord Blantyre,
renounced it when the rest of the property was sold to
Laurence Scott.
Laurence Scott's next purchase followed closely. On
February 19, 1629 he bought from the Earl of Lauderdale
the ten pound lands of Bonyngton ^ (Bonnington) with
mansion-house and fishings, in Ratho parish, Midlothian. It
marches with the property of Hatton, and is a couple of miles
north of Butelands. The house stands on a ridge with a
fine view of the Forth valley.
Bonnington was a possession of the Montgomeries, Earls
of Eglinton, from 1371, when Robert m. granted it to Sir
Hugh de Eglinton on the resignation of Sir Robert de Erskjaie,^
\mtil 1613, when Alexander, sixth Earl of Eglinton, sold it
to John Lord Thirlestane, afterwards first Earl of Lauder-
dale, who sold it three years later to Laurence Scott. It
was held blench of the Crown.
Laurence Scott completed his purchases on this side of
the Pentlands by acquiring from James Hamilton of KU-
brackmonth the lands of Easter Lymphoy, adjoining Malleny
in the parish of Currie.* They ' appertained of auld to the
Proveist, Prebendarie and Chaplanes of the Trinity Colledge
of Edinburgh,' ^ and were leased in 1526 to James Abemethy
» B. M. 8., 1513-46, No. 1954 ; 1546-80, Nos. 355, 1664, 3016.
2 R. M. S., 1620-33, No. 1374 ; MacGibbon and Ross, Castellated and Domestic
Architecture, v. 54, 408.
3 R. M. 8., 1306-1424, p. 84, Nos. 289, 291 ; 1609-20, No. 876.
* Edinburgh Testaments, February 9, 1664.
5 Reports on Parishes (Maitland Club), p. 60.
LAURENCE SCOTT OF HARPERRIG 177
and afterwards to Robert Heriot.^ On September 1, 1568
the College granted a feu to Agnes or Annie, daughter and
heiress of Robert Heriot, and to her husband James, eldest
son of Henry Foulis of Cohnton, the feu-duty being £14.2
Sir James FouUs, their eldest son, succeeded to the property,^
and sold it to James Hamilton. At the Reformation the
superiority passed to the Good Town of Edinburgh.
The New Statistical Account gives the following descrip-
tion of the place : * —
' Lennox Tower, now popularly called by the uncouth
name of Lymphoy, was formerly the property of the Lennox
family and a place of great strength. It was an occasional
residence of the lovely but unfortunate Mary, and also a
favourite hunting place of her son and successor, James vi.^
. . . Tradition reports it to have had a subterranean com-
munication with Cohnton tower, formerly the residence of the
Fouhs family, and about the beginning of the last century
a piper attempted to explore it. The sound of his pipes
was heard as far as Currie bridge, where he is supposed to
have perished. It certainly had a communication with the
Water of Leith, and with another building on the opposite
bank of the river on the lands of Cmriehill.'
Finally on July 10, 1634 Laurence Scott obtained, on
the resignation of George, first Lord Forrester of Corstorphine,
a charter comprising (1) the lands of Clerkington, (2) the lands
of Frierton.^ The two properties were quite distinct historic-
ally as well as geographically.
Clerkington, with its manor place and the pertinent called
Braidwood, lay in the parish of Temple, at the north end of
the Moorfoot hiUs, and about twelve miles south-east of
1 Charters of the Collegiate Churches of Midlothian (Bannatyne Club), pp. 92, 132.
* Scottish Universities Commission of 1826, Appendix, 1837 [97].
3 Inquisitiones, Edinburgh, p. 281.
* I. 546 (Currie).
' Hist. MSS. Com. Report, 1902, Colonel Milne Home, p. 68.
* R. M. S., 1634-51, No. 162.
178 LAURENCE SCOTT OF HARPERRIG
Edinburgh. It is similar in character to Harperrig and
Bavelaw, and the resemblance now goes so far that there
are reservoirs in this district also.
It is mentioned in the records as early as ISSS,-' when it
was in possession of Christian Bysset, widow of John Bysset
of Clerkington. It next passed to their son Walter, and in
1368 King David n. made a grant of the lands in favour of
Sir Archibald de Douglas. In 1424 they were given to Sir
John Forrester of Corstorphine, Chancellor of Scotland,^
on the resignation of Archibald Earl of Douglas, and were
included by annexation in the barony of Corstorphine, which
was erected next year. The lands remained with the
Forresters until they were sold to Laurence Scott two centuries
later.
Frierton was a small piece of land on the east slope of
the Pentlands lying into Paties Hill, between Nine Mile
Burn and Carlops. It is not more than a couple of miles
from the boundary of Harperrig and Bavelaw, and once more
there is a reservoir — the North Esk — close by.
It was originally a grant by King Robert m. in 1392 to
the Abbey of Holyrood for the salvation of his own soul
and those of his queen AnnabeUa and their eldest son David.*
It was annexed to the Abbey's barony of Broughton, which
was primarily the land upon which the New Town of Edin-
bvu-gh is built, but also included lands in other districts.
James Forrester of Corstorphine obtained a feu of Frierton
from the Abbey on August 25, 1537, and the grant was con-
firmed by Crown charter on April 16, 1546.^ The feu-duty
was twelve merks.
After the Reformation the barony was acquired by Sir
Lewis Bellenden, Lord Justice Clerk, whose grandson, Sir
1 Chartulary of Newhattle (Bannatyne aub), p. 292.
2 R. M. S., 1424-1513, No. 7, 17.
» lb., 1306-1424, p. 205, No. 26.
« lb., 1513-46, No. 3223.
LAURENCE SCOTT OF HARPERRIG 179
William, sold it in 1627 to his uncle, Robert, first Earl of
Roxburghe. In 1636, two years after Laurence Scott bought
Frierton, the superiority and remaining lands in the barony
of Broughton were bought by the trustees of George Heriot's
Hospital.
Laurence Scott experienced some of the trials of the laird.
On May 5, 1628 he petitioned the Privy Council ^ against
James Greg and three other men in Bavelaw, who daily come
to the complainer's lands, ' and to the oastler houses within
the same, whair they ly day and night spending the tyme in
drinking and ryott, and everie ane of thame haveing with
thame lying dogges and netts with ane long hacquebutt, and
whan they have done with thair drinking they aU concurrmg
togidder goes athort my bounds and other gentlemen's bounds
nixt adjacent, and partlie with a long hacquebutt and with
thair Ijmig dogges and netts they take and slay all kynde of
murefowle that they can find within our boxmds, and caries
the same in to the oastler houses and seUis and drinkis the
moneyes thairof at thair pleasure, and they live altogidder
as ydle vagabounds without anie trade calling or laughfull
Industrie.' Moreover they went ' to the hous of Bavillaw
whair I had raised twa turrets upoun the entrie thairof and
covered the heads of the same with leid, and leddered the
saids turrets, and rave down and tooke away with thame the
most pairt of the leid being upoun the saids turrets for making
of bulletts and drappes to thair hacquebutts.' The petition
was granted by being endorsed with the usual formula ' Fiat
ut petitur.^
Laurence Scott was on terms of intimacy and confidence
with the Buccleuch family. He was one of the commissioners
appointed in 1629 by Walter, the first Earl, to manage the
estates during his absence at the wars in the Netherlands. ^
Earl Walter, who died in November 1633, nominated him and
1 p. C. B., 2nd Series, ii. 589.
2 The Scots of Buccleuch, Sir Wm. Fraser, i. 256, 261, 264, 275 ; ii. 269.
180 LAURENCE SCOTT OF HARPERRIG
his eldest son William to be tutors to his children, and at the
Earl's funeral at Hawick seven months later Laurence Scott
carried his coat of honour, WiUiam Scott his standard, and
James Scott, the second son, carried ' the grate grumpheon
of black tafta one the pointe of lance sutable.'
Laurence Scott seems to have taken special charge of
young Earl Francis's pocket money, and the following letter
to him is extant, written in the boy's ninth year :
' Most loveing Tutob, — My love being rememberit to
you and your wife. Ye shall doe me the pleasur as to cause
send some moneyes heir to me again Hansel Monday that I
may gratifie my master and other servants. It saU please
you also to send furth ane pair of sweet gloves. So hoping
ye wiU obey me in this requeist. — I rest, your loving freind,
' BUCCLEUCHE.'
Melvlll, 31 December 1635.
In 1634 Laurence Scott was appointed to the Commission
of the Peace for Midlothian, ^ an institution which had been
introduced from England by King James vi. He had not,
however, always been on the side of law and order. On
November 14, 1617 he and his son-in-law James Scott were
committed by the Privy Council ^ to the Castle of Edinburgh
during their Lordships' pleasure for an assault upon a certain
James Harper. Harper had been given the escheat of the
goods of one Gawane Scott after an action with Laurence
and James Scott, and hearing that ' ane grite quantitie of
the guidis ' were in the house of Andro Law, he went there,
but ' missing him, stayed and soupit with his wyff, being
resolvit to have remainit in the house tiU his incomeing.'
The defenders ' not onhe stayed the said Andro fra comeing
to his house that nicht, bot thay, aecumpanied with fyv^e or
sex personis bodin in feir of weir [in warhke array], come to
1 P. C. R., 2nd Series, v. 378. ^ Ih., xi. 263.
LAURENCE SCOTT OF HARPERRIG 181
the said Androis house, and after thay had utterit mony
querreUing and threatning speitcheis aganis the said com-
plenair for presomeing to medle in a mater quhairin thay
had anes dippit, thay pat violent handis in the said com-
plenairis persone, strak him with thair neiffis [fists], and
by force and violence harht him to the dure.'
Laurence Scott married Elizabeth Pringle or Hoppringle,
daughter of WiUiam Pringle, litster [dyer] burgess of Edin-
burgh, and Alison Wallace his wife. Little or nothing is
known of these Pringles except that on November 23, 1598
WiUiam Pringle complained in person to the King in Privy
Coimcil 1 that upon November 3 George Hoppringill of
Blindley, with Robert Quhippo and Thomas Hardy his servants,
came by night armed to the complainer's ' roum ' (farm) of
Mitchelstoun (two miles north of Stow), and to the hoiises
possessed by his tenants, and finding the doors closed ' thay
cryed for fyre, and had not faUht tressonabhe to have rissin
fyre, and to have brint the haiU personis being within the
saidis houssis, wer not thay suddanelie oppynit the durris
and gaif thame entres within the saidis houssis ; and thay
entering thairin, thay sercheit and socht the said complenar
or sum of his servandis throw aU partis of the saidis houssis
to have slane thame, stoggit bedis with drawne swordis, and
had not faiUit to have slane the said complenar or sum of
his servandis, agains quhome thay unjustlie pretend a quarreU,
wer not be the providence of God thay wer absent for the
tyme.'
The result was that the defenders had to find caution
not to harm WiUiam Pringle, James and Andrew his sons,
and Laurence Scott his ' good son.'
WiUiam Pringle died on November 6, 1611, and his wife
three days earlier. ^
Laurence Scott died in December 1637, and his widow
1 p. C. B., V. 496, 528, 714.
^ Edinburgh Testaments, March 10, 1612 ; September 13, 1614.
182 LAURENCE SCOTT OF HARPERRIG
survived till November 1666,^ when she must have been a
very old woman.
They had three sons, WiUiam, James and Laurence (n),
and five daughters : —
(1) Marion, the eldest, married James Scott, brother of
John Scott of Knightspottie and Scotstarvit, Director of the
Chancery, and had two daughters, Elspeth and Jean : she
afterwards married Richard Lauder of Halton or Hatton,
and their only child, Elizabeth, married on November 18, 1652
Charles, third Earl of Lauderdale.
(2) Margaret, married (contract dated August 26, 1622)
William Wallace of Shewalton near Irvine. ^
(3) Agnes, married in 1622 Patrick Kinloch, advocate,
of Alderston between Midcalder and Westcalder, and had
seven children.^
(4) Jean, married James Clerk of Balbirnie.*
(5) Ahson, bom June 1610, married Peter Houston,
apparently a younger son of Sir Patrick Houston of that ilk.
LaTirence Scott left a will,^ made a few days before his
death. He had provided for his sons by a division of his
heritable properties, and to his daughters he left 1000 merks
each ; to Margaret, his eldest sister, fifty pounds ' for hir
ahment, as for the dewtie of the Loch and Lochlands called
Scotsloch lyand beside Irving,' and to his two other sisters
300 merks each. ' I leive to such poore of Edinburgh as
pleissis my said executors [his sons] to make choice of, the
sume of 500 merks: I leive to the Town of Edinburgh for
building of the Kirks 500 merks, to be delyvered as the Good
Town of Edinburgh sail think good.'
His movable assets consisted mainly of farm stock, and
1 Boohs of Sederunt, vol. 6, July 9, 1661 ; Greyfriars Register of Interments.
2 B. M. S., 1620-33, No. 1043.
3 History of Midcalder, H. B. M'CaU, p. 89.
» Q. R. S., vol. 42, p. 447.
° Edinburgh Testaments, February 9, 1664.
THE SCOTTS OF CLERKINGTON 183
among debts owing was the year's rent for his house in
Edinbiu-gh £240, and for his writing chamber £100.
In the distribution of the property, William Scott, the
eldest son, got Clerkington, Frierton, and Easter Ljonphoy,
He was appointed a Clerk of Session and of Parliament
in 1634,1 and was knighted in 1641. When the Civil War
broke out he took the ParUamentary side, and from 1644
to 1649 was on the Committees of War for Midlothian, ^ He
was rewarded in 1646 with a grant from the Commissioners
of Excise of the annual-rent on £6510, but he complained to
Parliament in 1649 that nothing had yet been paid.
Although he had never been an advocate, he was appointed
a Lord of Session by the Estates of Parhament, taking his
seat on June 8, 1649 with the title of Lord Clerkington ^ —
' one of a batch of furious asserters of their [the Estates']
way,' replacing ' so many of the Lords of the Session who
were tainted with the crime of loyalty ' and were cashiered.*
He had also a seat in Parhament from 1649, as Commissioner
first for Haddingtonshire and afterwards for Midlothian,
and he acted as principal clerk to the Committee of Estates,
signing several proclamations in that capacity. In 1652
he lost his official positions when the Scottish institutions
were swept away by Cromwell, and on December 23, 1656
he died very suddenly. Nicoll records in his Diary : ^ 'Sir
Wilhame Scott of Clerkingtoime, knycht, ane of the lait
Lordis of Sessioun in the lait kingis tyme and a verry guid
judge, depairtit this lyff of apoplexie.'
Lord Clerkington greatly increased his property in Currie
parish by getting feus of Wester Lymphoy, Malleny, Harlaw,
1 R. M. 8., 1634-51, Index Officioram.
2 Thomson's Acts, vi. i. 200a, 5616, 813a ; vi. ii. 187a, 358.
» Books of Sederunt, vol. v., June 8, 1649.
' History of Scottish Affairs, by Mr. James Wilson (Literary Soc. of Perth, 1827),
p. 70.
s (Bannatye Qub), p. 188 ; Baillie's Letters (Bannatyne Qub), iii. 367.
184 THE SCOTTS OF CLERKINGTON
and the Kirklands of Currie from the Good Town of Edinburgh,
and a feu of Kinleith from the College of St. Andrews. ^
He was twice married : (first) to Katharine, daughter of
John Morison of Prestongrange, and (secondly) to Barbara,
eldest daughter of Sir John Dalmahoy of Dalmahoy, knight,
who survived him and died in March 1684.^
His first family were : ^ —
(1) Laurence, who was born in September 1622, and suc-
ceeded to Clerkington and Frierton, which he had to surrender
on an apprising in 1657.* Clerkington afterwards became
part of the Rosebery estates. Laurence Scott married Helen
Dalmahoy, his stepmother's sister, who died in February 1675,
leaving two daughters but no sons.
(2) Bessie, born September 1623.
(3) WUHam, who succeeded to Clonbeith, which his father
bought in 1650 from his cousins, the daughters of James
Scott. ^ He married Margaret Ker, but died without issue.
(4) Walter, who was born in June 1632, and succeeded his
brother WiUiam in 1694,® and also died without issue. He
sold Clonbeith in 1694.
His second family were : —
(5) Barbara, who was born in January 1638, and married
Sir WiUiam Drummond of Hawthornden in April 1663.'
(6) Agnes, who is said to have married Sir John Home
of Renton.8
(7) John, who inherited the lands in Currie parish and
founded the family of the Scotts of Malleny, who held this
property imtil 1882, when it was sold to Lord Rosebery. As
1 B. M. 8., 1634-51, No. 1792.
" The Family of Dalmahoy, Thomas Falconer, p. 9.
8 Edinburgh Testaments, April 22, 1657.
* R. M. 8., 1652-59, No. 621.
» Ih., 1634-51, Nos. 1601, 2182.
* Inquisitiones, Ayr, 684.
' Edinburgh Marriage Begister.
* Douglas, Baronage, p. 218.
THE SCOTTS OF CLERKINGTON 185
his elder brothers left no male issue, he became the eldest
representative of the Harperrig connection, and registered
the Buccleuch arms with the difference — in base, an arrow
bendways proper, feathered and barbed argent ; crest, a
stag lodged proper ; motto, Amo probos.^
(8) Francis, born November 1642, seems to have died
young.
(9) Alexander, also died young.
(10) James, who succeeded to the ancestral property of
Scotsloch at Irvine, and became a Writer to the Signet.
He married Margaret Boyd and died in May 1693.^ She
survived tUl December 14, 1712.
(11) David, born December 1647, died young.
(12) Robert,^ who was born January 1649, graduated M.A.
at Edinburgh in 1670, became minister of Inverkeithing
in 1673, of Holyroodhouse in 1676, and Dean of Hamilton
from 1686 tUl the Revolution, when he lost his benefice.
He was made a D.D. of St. Andrews in 1686. He married
Barbara Martin, rehct of the Rev. Charles Carnegie, D.D.,
Dean of Brechin. He acquired the property of Kiaglassie in
rife,^ and was aUve in 1707.
Nisbet mentions three other daughters ^ — Margaret, Mary
and Jacobina.
James Scott, Harperrig's second son, succeeded to
Bonnington. He was admitted an advocate on February 2,
1648,^ and next year, when his brother Clerkington went on
to the bench, he succeeded him as Clerk of Session on the
nomination of Sir Archibald Johnston of Warriston, ' he
being brought up and servit his brother thairin this long
1 Nisbet, Heraldry, i. 98.
^ Oreyfriars Register of Interments.
3 Scott, Fasti, i. 85 ; ii. 269, 592.
* Morison, Dictionary, 11774.
* Genealogical Collections (Adv. Lib. MSS.).
' Books of Sederunt, vol. v.
2a
186 THE SCOTTS OF BONNINGTON
tyme.' ^ He survived the Restoration, but did not regain his
office ; in fact he was fined £1200 for taking the Pariiamentary
side in the Civil War.^
He married Violet Pringle before December 1, 1630,^
and had three sons who succeeded to Bonnington in turn * —
Gilbert, who died in March 1675, Charles, and James. He
also had a daughter Catherine.
^ Thomson's Acts, VL ii. 548.
2 lb., vii. 4216.
3 0. R. S., vol. 29, p. 284.
* Inquisitimies, Edinburgh, 1216, 1281 ; Inquisitiones Qeneraks, 6179 ; Services of
Heirs, 1700-1709.
CHAPTER XX
LAURENCE SCOTT OF BAVELAW, DIED 1669
Laurence Scott (ii), Harperrig's yoiingest son, was with his
brothers trained to the law.
On his father's death he got Bavelaw, Butelands and
Harperrig/ but was always known by the first of these
properties, as it was the most important, and included the
mansion-house.
Like his father he was the trusted friend and adviser of
the Buccleuch family. ^ He and his brother Clerkington
were among the twelve tutors, heads of the various Scott
families, who were appointed by Earl Francis to act for his
two daughters, and the position proved troublesome and
difficult.
The young Countess Mary, who was only four years old
at her father's death in 1651, at once became the centre of
intrigues for her hand, and dissensions arose among the
tutors. The south-coimtry Scotts ranged themselves against
the Scotts of the Lothians, and neither side could get a
working majority, until Clerkington's death turned the scale
in favour of the south-country faction. They secured the
custody of the charter chests, and played into the hands of
the Earl of Tweeddale, who was working to arrange a marriage
between the young Countess and Walter Scott, son of Gideon
Scott of Highchester, one of the tutors. Bavelaw's consent
was at length obtained, and he was present at the marriage,
^ Thomson's Ads, v. 491o ; Inquisitiones, Edinburgh, 1181.
2 Scotts of BiuxUuch, Sir Wm. Praser, i. 313, 342, 350, 402 seq., 412.
187
188 LAURENCE SCOTT OF BAVELAW
which was celebrated with great secrecy at the Church of
Wemyss.^ The bride was not twelve years old.
Two years later she died, and the intrigues were at once
renewed round the yoimger sister, Countess Anna. A
formidable competitor was put forward in the young Duke
of Monmouth, a natural son of Charles n., and the tutors
having given their consent, the marriage took place in 1663
just after the Countess had completed her twelfth year.
Laurence Scott was one of the signatories to the marriage
contract, and was nominated by the Countess to be one of
her curators.
Laurence Scott was a supporter of Presb5rterianism,
and was a seatholder in the Tron Church, Edinburgh.^
Dviring the Civil War he and his brother Clerkington were
active on the side of Parhament and the Covenant, and were
nominated by the Estates to serve on the Committees of War
each year from 1646 to 1649.^ In 1646 he was granted an
annual-rent on £12,000, but hke his brother he complained
to Parliament in 1649 that nothing had been paid.
At the Restoration he was appointed by Sir Archibald
Primrose, Lord Clerk Register, to be a Clerk of Session,* and
occupied the office till his death. In 1661 an annuity of
£40,000 was voted to the King, and Laurence Scott was one
of the Commissioners of Excise charged with raising the
quota of the tax laid upon the county of Edinburgh.^ Two
years later he was appointed a Justice of the Peace for the
county.
He did not, however, escape punishment for his exertions
on behalf of the Covenanters, for among the exceptions from
the Act of Indemnity of 1662 ' in so far as may concern the
payment of the sums xmderwritten ' are — Mr. Laurence
1 VfTper Teviotdale and the Scotts of Buccleuch, J. R. Oliver, p. 316.
2 Butler, History of the Tron, p. 154.
3 Thomson's Ads, vi. (1), 562 (a), 813 (a) ; vi. (2), 30 (6), 187 (a), 358.
* Books of Sederunt, vi. June 5, 1661 ; Thomson's Acts, vii. App. 5.
6 Thomson's Acts, vii. 90 (a), 504 (6).
LAURENCE SCOTT OF BAVELAW 189
Scott of Bavelaw £2400 Scots, and Mr. James Scott of Bonyng-
toun £1200 Scots. 1
Laurence Scott of Bavelaw died suddenly on October
31, 1669, and was buried three days later at Greyfriars.
Lamont records in his Diary : ^ ' 1669, Nov. 1. S^ . . , Scot
of Bevelay in Lowthian, one of the Clerks of the Sessioun att
Edb., depairted out of this life [yesterday] at Edb. He djmed
that day att Bavelay, and came in after to Edb. and dyed
suddenly that same night.'
He was twice married. His first wife was Margaret Boyd,
daughter of Stephen Boyd of Temple, merchant in Edinburgh,
and by her he had seven children, three of whom hved to
grow up — Elizabeth (Lady Binning), born November 1639,
Laurence (in), afterwards of Bavelaw, born August 1643, and
Margaret, who married in August 1665 Hugh Wallace of
Ingliston, Writer to the Signet,^ afterwards representative
in Parhament for the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright 1685-86,
and for Kintore 1689-90. They had a son Thomas. Four
daughters of Laurence Scott and Margaret Boyd died in
infancy — Marion, born June 1642, Anna, born October 1644,
Barbara, born January 1647, and Janet, born April 1648.
Margaret Boyd seems to have been alive on March 28,
1649, when her husband was made a burgess and guild
brother of Edinburgh in her right as the daughter of a
burgess, but she must have died very soon after, for in
March 1650 Laurence Scott married his second wife, Catherine
Binning, haK-sister of his future son-in-law. Sir WiUiam
Binning. They had a family of twelve : two sons, WiUiam
(iv) and Charles (v), grew up and succeeded to the property ;
five daughters also grew up, and five children died in infancy
— Eupham, born January 1654, Marion, born August 1656,
Hew, born September 1658, David, born October 1660, and
Anna, born May 1662.
1 Thomson's Acts, vii. 421 (6). - (Maitland Club), p. 215.
' Inquisitiones Oenerales, No. 8721 ; History of the W.S. Society,
190 LAURENCE SCOTT OF BAVELAW
The second Mrs. Scott survived her husband for many
years, and was ahve in 1703. AH that is recorded of her
is that her son-in-law, Sir Alexander Brand, successfully
sued one James Marshall for slander in having said that he
(Brand) had called his mother-in-law a witch.^
Of the five daughters of the second family,
(1) Katharine, born April 1651, died unmarried after 1690.
(2) Barbara, born July 1652, married in June 1682, as the
second of his three wives, Sir Roger Hog (Lord Harcarse), a
Lord of Session, and died within three years leaving an only
child, Barbara, who married WiUiam Robertson of Ladykirk.
(3) Christian, born February 1655, married in 1674 Sir
Alexander Brand of Brandsfield, and had a large family.
(4) Janet, born October 1659, married in February 1682
Michael Lumsden, advocate, and died before 1701, having had
two sons — Charles, born August 1685, and George, born April
1688, who both died young — and two daughters, Katharine,
who married David Boswell of Balmuto, and Barbara, who
died unmarried. Mr. Lumsden' s grandfather, father and
brother were successively ministers of Duddingston.
(5) Agnes, born October 1663, married on February 16,
1695 Adam Fullarton, W.S., of Bartonholm, a property just
north of Irvine. He died in 1709, and their only son, Captain
William Fullarton, died unmarried. ^
During the hundred years after Laurence Scott's death
Bavelaw passed through eight hands. Laurence (iii), the eldest
son, who succeeded him, was married at Alnwick on January
16, 1670 to Margaret, only chdd of John Maxwell, eldest son
of Sir James Maxwell of Calderwood.^ She had had an
unhappy upbringing : her father had been guilty of scandalous
^ Edinburgh Commissariot Records, Consistorial Processes (Scot. Record Soc),
No. 117.
2 CampbelTs Session Papers (Adv. Lib.), vol. vi. Nos. 5 and 7 ; Morison, Dictionary,
p. 3420.
= Maxwells of PoUok, Sir Wm. Fraser, i. 483.
THE SCOTTS OF BAVELAW 191
ill-treatment of her mother, and was denounced as a rebel
in consequence.
Laurence Scott's marriage turned out unhappily. He
had no family, and in 1676 his wife proved unfaithful and
left him. He thereupon divorced her.^ She was alive in
1682. It may well be that she had great provocation,
for he figures in the records of Penicuik kirk session and
Dalkeith presbytery as a contumacious resister of discipUne.
An entry in the session record on July 28, 1679, the year of
his death, runs : ' Received from Bavelaw the sum of £28, 8s.
penalty for his sins, he having before this for a considerable
period defied the Presbytery and Session.' Harperrig was
sold about this time.
His haK-brother, WiUiam (iv), who succeeded, obtained
on October 9, 1679 a charter xmder the Great Seal ^ erecting
the lands of Bavelaw and Butelands into the free barony of
Bavelaw. He was admitted an advocate on March 17, 1684,
was appointed a Commissioner of Supply in 1686,^ and died
without issue in March 1690,* aged forty- two.
Bavelaw passed to his brother Charles (v), who generously
carried out a provision, which WiUiam had intended to
make, of 4000 merks for his j&ve sisters. ^ He also was a
Commissioner of Supply in 1690 and 1696.® He married
Barbara Scott, a daughter of his cousin, John Scott of MaUeny,
and had three sons, John, WiUiam, and Laurence. She sur-
vived him, and on September 6, 1709 married Mr. Walter
Stewart, Sohcitor-General. She died in July 1751,' leaving
a daughter by her second husband, Anne, who married CoUn
Maclaurin, the famous professor of Mathematics.
^ Commissariot of Edinr., Consistorial Processes, No. 18 (Scot. Record Soc).
2 Vol. 63, Fol. 51.
^ Thomson's Acts, viii. 610 (o).
' Edinburgh Testaments, November 17, 1691.
' Campbell's Session Papers (Adv. Lib.), vol. vi., Nos. 5 and 7.
« Thomson's Acts, ix. 137 (a) ; x. 28 (6).
' Edinburgh Testaments, March 20, 1753.
192 THE SCOTTS OF BAVELAW
Charles Scott died in December 1701 aged thirty-three,
and Bavelaw went first to his eldest son, John (vi), who died
in July 1703, and then to the second son, William (vn).
Laurence, the third son, was a merchant in Glasgow, and
cashier there to the Royal Bank. He died on October 5,
1764, in his seventieth year, leaving a son, Charles, and a
daughter, Barbara.
Wilham Scott was admitted an advocate on July 6, 1717,
and married in November 1721 Mary, eldest daughter of
WiUiam Fouhs of WoodhaU, advocate,^ by whom he had four
sons and three daughters. He had been elected a member
of the Royal Company of Archers in 1712. In July 1737 he
bought at a judicial sale the estate of Kersland in the parish
of Dairy, Ayrshire ^ — a property which had been possessed
by the Kers since the beginning of the thirteenth century,
held ward of the Eghnton family. In the winter of 1740,
during a time of scarcity, WiUiam Scott provided a supply
of corn to be sold to the people on his property at a low
rate.^ The Caledonian Mercury,^ in notifying his sudden
death in Edinburgh on September 8, 1741, describes him as
' a gentleman of great sobriety and vertue, and universally
Bavelaw once more passed through the hands of three
brothers in turn. WiUiam (vni), the eldest son, who was
under the tutorship of his uncle Laurence, died on March 5,
1747 ; Laurence (ix), the second son, died in September 1755
aged eighteen ; ^ and Charles (x), who was born on AprU 8,
1738, finally succeeded. The rest of the famUy of WiUiam
Scott and Mary Foulis were a son David, and three daughters,
Barbara, Mary (wife of Andrew Home, merchant in Windy-
ghoul), and Margaret.
1 Account Book of Sir John Foulis (Scot. Hist. Soc), p. Ixix.
2 Hamilton-Gordon's Session Papers (Adv. Lib.), 1st Ser., 2K, 11.
5 Cuixie Kirk Session Records, December 28, 1740.
* September 10, 1741.
= Edinburgh Courant, September 4, 1755.
THE SCOTTS OF BAVELAW 193
Charles Scott was a cornet in the Scots Greys from 1758
to 1762. In the latter year he married Frances, daughter
of John Vicaradge, Attorney in Exchequer, and exchanged
into the 108th Foot as adjutant. The regiment was dis-
banded the next year, and he remained on the haK-pay
(Irish) estabhshment till 1783, presumably the year of his
death. During his time the family property was dissipated.
His brother William had already sold part of Kersland, and
Laurence with the consent of his curators had feued the
remainder, but Charles borrowed money on the superiority,
which amounted to £70 per annum, and eventually it had to
be sold. Butelands with a rental of £175, 8s. 6d. was adver-
tised for sale in 1763,^ and was bought by Calderwood of
Polton. Three years later Charles Scott tried to sell Bavelaw,^
the rental being stated at £120, 13s. No bargain resulted,
so the advertisement was renewed in 1772 and 1773, the
rental, including the farm of Bedford, being then given at
£313, 15s. 8d. and £6600 being fixed as the upset price. The
estate was bought on April 1, 1774 by David Johnston of
Lathrisk, merchant in Gottenburg.^ These transactions did
not relieve Charles Scott's embarrassments, and on December
6, 1775 * he was sequestrated, and afterwards went abroad.
His widow was hving at 3 Windmill Street, Edinburgh, as
late as 1809. He left several children, the representation of
the family in the male line being now in Commander Charles
Scott, Chief Constable of Sheffield.
Bavelaw remained in the Johnston family tiU 1903, when
it was bought by John Scott Tait, chartered accountant,
whose representatives sold it in 1911 to Sir Alexander OUver
Biddell of Craiglockhart.
1 Edinburgh Courant, November 2, 1763.
2 lb., Febraary 1, 1766, June 15, 1772, November 29, 1773.
' Register of Deeds (Durie), vol. 233, fol. 456.
* Edinburgh Courant, December 30, 1775.
2b
BOYD PEDIGREE
THOMAS BOYD op Kipps,
d. Oct. 1675.
\
James op Kipps,
Marion, daughter of Richard Carmichael
of Aithernie, d. January 1594.
Robert of Kipps, advocate,
b. 1575, d. July 10, 1645,
m. Geilles Boig.
John. Stephen op Temple, Bailie of Edin- Marion,
I burgh 1635 and 1639, m. Not. 30, 1615, m. Francis Cockburn
Elizabeth Hutchesoue, d. Dec. 1642. of Temple.
Margaret, b. Jan. 1606,
d. July 10, 1672, m.
David, brother of Sir
Christian,
m. William
Monteith
Sibbald of of Carriber.
n
John, Bailie of Edin- James of Temple, d.
bargh 1660, 1663, and March 1674, m. 1641,
Makoaket,
n. Laurence
Scott
Sir Robert Sibbald (1641-
1722), President Royal
College of Physicians,
Edinburgh, First Pro-
fessor of Medicine in
Edinburgh University.
Andrew Stevin,
1677. I
Anna, daughter
William Henryson of Bavelaw.
of Grantoun.
[argaret, m. Sep. 4, 1670, Elizabeth, d. 1686, Anna, m. Alexander
Sir James Foulis, third m. James Scott, Sympsone, merchant
Bart, of Colinton (Lord Sheriff-Clerk of burgess of Edinburgh.
Reidfoord). Edinburgh.
CHAPTER XXI
THE BOYDS OF KIPPS
Stephen Boyd of Temple, whose daughter married Laurence
Scott of Bavelaw, was the youngest son of James Boyd of
Kipps, Linhthgowshire.i
The Kipps family are evidently descended from the
Boyds of Kilmarnock. In an heraldic MS., of date about
1600 and attributed to Sir David Lindsay the younger, there
is a note opposite the blazon of Lord Boyd in a contemporary
hand ^ — ' Lairds of Banheath, Kippis, Bonschaw, Penkill,
the Throchrig ' — evidently indicating that they are the
cadet branches. James Boyd and his father are often found
in close association with Robert, fifth Lord Boyd ; ^ and
Robert Boyd of Badinheath, brother of the sixth Lord Boyd,
in his will made in 1611, appoints his ' cousin ' Mr. Robert
Boyd of Kipps to be one of his executors.'* It seems most
probable that this branch descended from a younger son of
Alexander, third Lord Boyd.
Kipps was acquired by Thomas Boyd, who was one of
the commissioners for Torphichen parish at John Knox's
first General Assembly of the Reformed Church,^ which
met on December 20, 1560 and drew up the famous Book
of Discipline. In 1568 he appears along with his son James
among the followers of Robert Lord Boyd at the battle of
^ Guild Register of Edinburgh.
2 Stoddart, Scottish Arms, ii. 283.
3 Glasgow Protocols, vii. No. 2090 ; x. No. 3085.
* Paterson, History of Ayrshire, 1842, ii. 620.
' Booke of the Universal Kirk (Bannatyne Club), p. 4.
196 THE BOYDS OF KIPPS
Langside, where they fought for Queen Mary against the
Regent Moray and were defeated.
In 1571 father and son received the King's pardon,^ and
next year they obtained from Lord Torphichen a grant of
the hferent and fee respectively of the three merk lands of
Kipps. The grant was confirmed by a charter of King
James vi. on February 13, 1574.^
Thomas Boyd died in October 1575, and was buried in
Torphichen church. He left three sons, James his successor,
Robert, and William, and a daughter, Margaret.
James Boyd had been in the service of Lord Torphichen,
and the feu charter of Kipps bears to have been granted
partly for good service and partly for a money consideration.
Sir Robert Sibbald says : ^ 'I have seen the copie of a
Commission to be Balive by James Lord Torphichen to James
Boyd of Kipps and his Heirs, for aU the Temple Lands within
the bounds of Angus and Fife for nineteen years.'
Kipps is described in the charter as a three merk land,
with the grain mill of the barony of Torphichen, together with
the astricted multures of all grain grown on the lands of the
said barony, and with the piece of land called MylnhiU and
the kiln built on it, ' all as occupied by the said Thomas Boyd.'
The feu-duty was 40 shillings for Kipps and £24, 14s. Scots
for the miU and multures, with the usual services.
Kipps, now a ruin, lies on the southern slope of Cockleroi
or Cocklernie Hill, about three miles south of Linhthgow
and a mile north-east of Torphichen. MacGibbon and Ross,
who give a plan and illustration of the house, say : * ' The
building is a gaunt narrow oblong house, extremely plain,
but it may be regarded as a good specimen of the kind of
1 R M. S., 1546-80, No. 1969 ; Ahhotsford Chth Miscellany, ' Boyd Papers,' i. 29.
2 B. M. 8., 1546-80, No. 2186.
3 History of the Sheriffdom of Linlithgow, p. 24.
* Castellated and Domestic Architecture, iv. 14.
JAMES BOYD OF KIPPS 197
accommodation required in a Scotch gentleman's house in
the seventeenth century.'
Sir Robert Sibbald, who Hved there in the early years
of the eighteenth century, says : ^ ' As to the particular
Description of the Parish [Torphichen] : I begin with the
eastmost house of it, the Kipps ; which in the old Language
signifies Hills. The house stands upon the rising of the
Hill, and in the midst of Planting and Gardens, it is shaltered
from the North Winds by the Hill of Cocklereuf, and is open
towards the south. There are several VaUies with Springs
and Rivulets rixnning through them between the Hills, which
afford a constant Verdure there, for the Hills are often
moistened with the Vapours wliich ascend from the Coast
and other low Gromids about it, which settle on the Tops
of the Hills, and drop down on them when there is no Rain
in the Neighbourhood.
' A little to the West of the House, there is an Echo
from Cocldereuf, which repeats three several times from
different places, distinctly, six or seven syUabls; when one
has their Face towards the House. And when one turns
and looks to the North West there is upon caUing a Circular
Echo, from the ambient Hills. From the House there is,
betwixt the rising Grounds on each side, an easie Descent
towards the Meadow, which openeth a long and large Prospect
of the Countrey westward ; and from the top of the Hill on
which the House stands there is a Prospect of the Countrey
round about, and of the Firth of Forth from the rise of the
River to the May and the Bass : the Castle of Stirling and
the Links of Forth and the Carss Countrey on each side of
the River afford a delightful Prospect.
' The Ground has Coal and other IMinerals and MetaUs
in it. There is Mundick foimd in the Bourns, and the
Hematites upon the laboured Land, and at the foot of the
West Bank there is a Vitriolick Spring,
^ History of the Sheriffdom of Ldnlithgow, pp. 22-26.
198 JAMES BOYD OF KIPPS
' The House is at a miles distance from any other Seat
of the Gentry, so that it is a perfect Sohtude, and without
the Ornaments of Art, which other Seats have, but has
many commendable advantages by Nature's Free Gift. . . .
' There is at the end of the Inclosure of the Kipps an
ancient Altar of several great Stones so placed that each
of them does support another, and not one of them could
stand without the support of the other : the broad Stone,
upon which the Sacrifice was offered, looks to the South ;
near to this Altar is a Circle of Stones with a large Stone
or two in the middle : this was a Temple in Ancient Times,
and our word Kirk is from Circus, the round position of the
Stones.'
In 1573 Lord Torphichen was summoned before the Privy
Council on the charge of having retained certain articles of
furniture and ' ane coffer full of buikis ' belonging to the
Crown. '^ He admitted having received them, and professed
his willingness to restore them : at the same time he pled
that they had been given to him by Queen Mary, and called
James Boyd of Kipps as a witness. Thomas Binning of
Carlowriehaugh was also cited. James Boyd deponed that
he ' wes desirit be my Lord Torphechen to pas to Lochlevin
quhair the Queen then wes, and obtenit fra hir a precept
to Servie to be ansuerit of sic thingis as mycht serve to my
Lord of Saint Johnnes' commoditie, being then diseasit and
lying in the Abbay.'
Some time before 1567 James Boyd had left the service
of Lord Torphichen, ' and duelt with my Lord Boyd.' In
1569 he and his master were witnesses to a commission by
the Queen for procuring a divorce from Bothwell,^ and in
the spring of 1571 he was sent to Sheffield to render ' compt '
of some affairs to the Queen. ^ He was a witness * to the
^ Inventories of the Royal Wardrobe, Tho3. Thomson, p. 192.
2 National MSS. of Scotland, in. 69. => Calendar of Scottish Papers, iii. 493, 531.
• The Montgomeries, Earls of Eglinion, Sir Wm. Fraser, ii. 216.
JAMES BOYD OF KIPPS 199
marriage contract of Lord Boyd's daughter to Hugh, after-
wards fourth Earl of Eglinton, and in 1589 he stood surety
that Lord Boyd would not harm a certain George Ctmningham
in Gogar.i In 1582 he himself had to find caution of
£500 not to ' ressett, supplie nor intercommotm be word or
write ' with any of the ' declairit tratouris forfaltit and now
remaning furth of this realm.'
James Boyd made two appearances in the Court of
Justiciary. 2 On May 20, 1589 he was ' delatit ' along with
Thomas Master of Boyd and four other persons ' of the
slauchter of umq^^ John Mure in the Well committit near
Prestwick in the moneth of August 1571,' The complaint
set forth ^ that the accused ' w* convocatioun of o^ leagis
to the nwmber of sextene persounis or th^'by, aU boidin in
feir of weir w* jackis, speiris, secreitis steUbonnetis, swordis,
lang culweringis, duggis and pistolettis expresslie prohibeit
to be borne worne usit or schot ... in the moneth of August
the zeir of God jaj v* Ixxj zeiris, haifing conceavit ane deidlie
feid ranco'' and malice aganis the said umqie Jhoime, umbeset
the hiegat and passage to him at the kirk of prestick lyand
wtin o'' s^'effdome of air, quhair he was solitar his aUane
rydand fra the toun of air to his awin duelling hous in the
well in maist sober and quyet maner, set upone him and
crueUie invadit him for his slauchtir, schot and delaschit th""
pistolettis at him q^'w* thai schot him throuche the body,
and being fallin of the hors, w* th"" suordis maist crueUie
and unmercifuUie slew him upone set pvirpois provisioun
invy and foirtho* feUony.'
Letters of remission were granted by the King.
In 1590 James Boyd was complainer at the trial of James
Gyb * on the charge of ' Wearing and Shooting of Pistolets
within the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Wounding, etc' The
' P. C. E., iii. 488; iv. 370. - Pitcairn, Cnmirud Triah, i. Pt. 2, 171.
^ The Historie and Descent of the House of Rowallane, p. 120.
« Pitcairn; Criminal Trials, i. Pt. 2, 187.
200 JAMES BOYD OF KIPPS
prisoner was ' convict of umbesetting of the hie way and
passage, upoune deidhe feid, rancour, and malice to James
Boyd of Kippis, burges of Edinburghe, the penult day of
Maij last bypast, the said James being gangand sobirlie upoune
the hie streit thairof, as within our souerane lordis chalmer
of peax, dredand na evill, harme, iniurie or persuit of ony
persounes, bot to haif levit under Godis peax and our souerer-
ane lordis, and thair setting upoune him, and crewallie
invading him with ane pistolet and drawin swerd for his
slauchter ; schuiting of him with the said pistolet and thre
bullettis in the rycht fute, and hurting and wounding of
him with his sword in the rycht hand, to the eflfusioune of
his blude in grit quantitie.'
After the verdict a letter from the King was read. It
was addressed to the Court and stated that as the prisoner
had committed the crime ' within the boundis of our awin
PaHce and Chalmer, in proude contempte of Us and mony
of our Actis of Parliament, Secreit CounsaU and Proclama-
tiounis past thairupoune, and thairby hes offerit ane pereUous
preparative and example to the rest of our subjectis ; this
being the first fact committit in that forme sen our returning
to our realme or lang befoir. . . . Thairfoir we declair that
the said James Gyb saU suffer the death and be put thairto
without ony delay as he hes worthelie deseruit.'
A month later, however, at a sitting of the Court on
July 11, ' Comperit Mr. James Carmichel, brothir-in-law
to James Boyd of the Kippis, and produceit ane Precept
direct be oure Soueverane Lord to the Justice.
' " Forsamekill as James Gyb wes be ane condigne Assyse
laitlie convict and condamnit to deid before zow . . .
Quhilk dome of deid wes thaireftir upoune certane respectis
mitigat be Ws ; and the said James decernit and condamnit
to want his rycht hand for the cryme foirsaid ; The execu-
tioun quhairof hes bene as zit delayit, att the ernist requeist
and desyre of the said James Boyd of Kippis, to quhome
JAMES BOYD OF KIPPS 201
the wrang and offence wes done ; ane manne mair willing
apperandlie, upoune repentance of his offendar, to petie,
pardoun and forgif, nor to seek revange of his offence be
schedding of mair blude : qnhais Cristinne inchnatioune we
can nocht bot allow. And now, being informit that certane
gentilmen, takand the burding upoune thame for the said
James Gyb, hes for the assythment of the said James Boyd
maid certane offerris and bundin and obleist thame under
certane pecuniaU panis that the said James Gyb saU do sic
homage to him as he saU pleis command ; and als that the
said James Gyb saU wiUinglie baneise him selff furth of our
realme and saU newir returne agane. , . . We charge you
to interpone your auctoritie thairvmto, Lyke as we also
interpone oure auctoritie to the said Band." '
James Boyd was a man of property before he succeeded
his father in the estate of Kipps. In 1573 he bought from
his kinsman, James Boyd of Trochrig, Archbishop of Glasgow,
a ' ruinous and waist tenement ' on the north side of the
High Street of Edinburgh,^ which had been burnt by the
Enghsh in 1544 during the Earl of Hertford's invasion. The
disposition was confirmed by King James in 1575, and again
in 1592 after the annexation of the Church lands. In 1578
he bought the miU of Carstairs, also from the Archbishop. ^
On November 3, 1587 James Boyd was made a burgess
and guild brother of Edinburgh in right of his wife, Marion,
daughter of Richard Carmichael of Aithernie, merchant
bvu-gess. He seems to have lived principally in Edinburgh,
for at his death the lands of Kipps were let to a tenant.^
Richard Carmichael, who was a bailie of Edinburgh in
1556,* was the son of John Carmichael, burgess of Edinburgh,
' Thomson's Acts, iii. 616.
2 R. M. 8., 1546-80, No. 2881.
' Morison, Diclionary, 5386.
* Laing Charters, 659.
2c
202 THE CARMICHAELS OF AITHERNIE
and Mary Richardson his wife. In 1536 John Carmichael
obtained from the Abbess of the Nunnery of North Berwick
a feu of the lands of Aithemie,^ which he in the parish of
Scoonie in Fife, about a mile and a half from the Firth of
Forth half-way between Leven and Largo.
The lands were a grant to the Nmmery, partly by the
Earl of Fife in 1160, and partly by Thomas Lundin of that
ilk in 1220 ; ^ and at the Reformation they were included in
the barony of North Berwick erected in favour of Alexander
Home.3 In 1623 the superiority of the barony passed to
Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall, the famous Lord Advocate,^
the reddendo paid to him for Aithernie being £11.
Richard Carmichael died in April 1588, leaving at least
three sons — John, WiUiam, a burgess of Dysart, and James,
minister of Haddington.^
Mr. James Carmichael was one of the most prominent
of John Knox's successors in the Reformed Church. He
graduated M.A. at St. Andrews in 1564, and was appointed
to Haddington in 1570 : he held the benefice for over fifty
years, with a break of four years (1584-88), during which,
along with Andrew Melville and others, he had to take refuge
in England owing to his sympathy with the Ruthven raiders.®
He was nominated constant Moderator of the Presbytery
of Haddington in 1606, and died in 1628 in his eighty-fifth
year. Wodrow says : ' ' He was a person of very great
naturaU and acquired abilities, a sufficient person for busi-
ness, and a great strain of both piety and strong learning
runs through his letters and papers.' He was a fine scholar :
he was the author of Grammaticoe Latince de Etymologia
1 R. M. S., 1513-46, Nos. 1006, 1759, 2388, 2659.
2 Charters of North Berwick {Bannatyne Club), pp. 5, 11.
3 R. M. S., 1580-93, No. 1492.
« Ih., 1620-33, No. 463.
^ Edinburgh Testaments, May 30, 1594.
" Life of Andrew Melville, M'Crie, 2nd Ed., i. 229 ; ii. 412, 431.
' Miscellany, i. 412.
THE CARMICHAELS OF AITHERNIE 203
Liber secundus, and he was selected by the Privy Council
to revise Skene's Regiam Majestatem as it passed through
the press.
On Richard Carmichael's death Aithernie was acquired
by Thomas Inglis, merchant in Edinburgh, ^ and on his death
some time before 1622 it passed to his son-in-law, WiUiam
Rig, also merchant in Edinburgh,^ who had married Sara
IngHs in January 1612.^
William Rig's first enjoyment of Aithernie was as a
prisoner : he was a prominent Presbyterian and refused to
conform to the Articles of Perth of 1618, so he and five other
laymen were sentenced to banishment in 1620.* After
being kept for some time at Blackness, Rig petitioned in
1625 to be allowed to stay at Aithernie, in order, as he said,
that he might have access to the guidance of the Archbishop
of St. Andrews. The petition was granted.
Aithernie remamed in the Rig family till 1670, when it
was sold to James Watson of Downfield, son of David Watson
and grandson of James Watson sometime Provost of St.
Andrews. 5 James's son, Alexander, married Margaret
Lindsay, daughter of David Lindsay of EdzeU, and left a
daughter and heiress, Anne, who married Dr. James Smyth,
a cadet of the house of Braco. The eldest daughter and
heiress, Margaret Smjrth, married Dr. Thomas Carmichael,
whose granddaughter, Maria Agnes Carmichael-Smyth,
became Mrs. Alexander Monro (Tertius). Thus by a coinci-
dence the last three generations of Monros can claim a two-
fold descent from the lairds of Aithernie, and the property
twice passed through famiUes of Carmichaels.
James Boyd of Kipps died in January 1594, survived by
1 R. M. S., 1593-1608, No. 2167.
^ Inquisitiones Generales, 1020.
^ Edinburgh Marriage Register.
* P. C. R., xii. 249-51 ; xiii. 694.
'" hiquisitiones, Fife, 1136, 1137.
204 THE BOYDS OF KIPPS
his wife and three sons, Robert, John, and Stephen, and
a daughter, and was buried in Torphichen Church. The
daughter, Marion, married Francis Cockburn of Temple.^
In his will James Boyd nominated tutors to his children, and
appointed Lord Boyd and the Master of Boyd to be overs-
men to supervise their actings. ^
Robert, the eldest son, who was born in 1575, succeeded
to Kipps, and became an advocate with a good practice. In
1609 he raised an action against his mother, who had married
a Mr. John RusseU, for delivery of certain heirship goods,
including ' six gold buttons which his father had upon his
skin coat.' ^ His wife's name was Geilles Boig. He died
on July 10, 1645 leaving two daughters, Margaret and
Christian, and was buried at Torphichen. The inscription
on his tomb runs : * ' Magistro Roberto Bodio a Elipps,
Jurisconsulto ; qui ad antiquam sanguinis nobihtatem,
insignem pietatis, probitatis et eruditionis claritatem accu-
mulavit : bonis probatus vixit, desideratus ad coelestem
gloriam transiit 10 Juhi 1645, setatis septuagesimo primo.'
After his death his ' ludgeing foranent Nidries W3nid
head' was for a couple of years used as a powder magazine.^
Margaret, the elder daughter, married David Sibbald,
son of Andrew Sibbald of Over Rankeillor in Fife, and brother
of Sir James Sibbald, and had a large family, her third son
being Sir Robert Sibbald, founder of the Royal CoUege of
Physicians in Edinburgh. Christian Boyd, the yoamger
daughter, married WUUam Monteith of Carriber. The
sisters could not agree as to the possession of Kipps after
their father's death, so the matter was taken into Court,
1 p. C. B., 2nd Series, u. 314.
2 Edinburgh Testaments, July 26, 1595.
^ Morison, Dictionary, p. 5386.
* Monteith, Epitaphs, ed. 1851, p. 274.
^ Thomson's Acts, vi. (1), 694, 724.
THE BOYDS OF KIPPS 205
where it was decided that the mansion-house belonged to
Mrs. Sibbald.
Sir Robert Sibbald described his mother as ' a vertuous
and pious matron of great sagacity and firmnesse of mjmde
and very carefuU of my education.' ^ Her tomb at Tor-
phichen records : ' Sub hoc etiam conditur cippo Margareta
Bodia ejusdem Magistri Roberti fUia primogenita et conjunx
Magistri Davidis Sibbaldi fratris germani RankUorii, in qua,
prseter sLngularem modestiam et constantiam emicuere pietas,
prudentia et qusecumque virtus matronam decebat ab
illustrissima Bodiorum gente oriundam. Nata Januarii
1606, denata 10 Juhi 1672.' Sir Robert Sibbald lived at
Kipps for many years, and after his death the property
went to his son-in-law, Alexander Falconer, advocate. ^ It
was allowed to become dilapidated, and though it was after-
wards repaired, it again feU into ruins within living memory.
Of John Boyd, second son of James Boyd of Kipps,
nothing is known except a single incident recorded in the
Register of the Privy Council.^ On July 31, 1600 two men
called M'Grane complained that upon a Sunday in June
last, they having repaired to the town of Mauchline ' for
heiring of the Word, Hppyning for na truble nor injurie to
have bene oflferit to thame,' Johnne Boyde, brother of the
goodman of KLippis, and Hew Gray of Mayboill assaulted
them in divers parts of their bodies. The defenders did
not appear and were denounced as rebels.
John Boyd's son John became a merchant in Edinburgh,*
and was fourth Bailie in 1660, and first Bailie in 1663, and
again in 1676 when Sir WiUiam Binning was Provost. He
was chosen Dean of Guild the following year, but died ten
* Maidment, Analecta, i. 126 seq.
2 Arniston Session Papers (Adv. Lib.), vol. xi. No, 11.
3 vi. 140.
* Inquisitiones Generates, 3376.
206 THE BOYDS OF KIPPS
days after his election. He married Margaret Keith, widow
of Andrew Stevin, and left one daughter, Margaret, who on
September 4, 1670 married Sir James Fouhs (Lord Reidfoord),
third Baronet of Colinton.^ His Lordship ' got with her of
tocher about ane 100 pounds Scots.' ^
1 Inquisitiones Generales, 6142.
2 Index of Genealogies, etc. in Lyon Office (Scot. Record Soc).
CHAPTER XXII
STEPHEN BOYD OF TEMPLE
Stephen Boyd, whose daughter married Laurence Scott,
was the youngest son of James Boyd of Kipps. On November
23, 1614 ' compeirand su£&cientlie armit w* ane furnishit
corslett' he was admitted a burgess and guild brother of
Edinburgh.
He married Elizabeth Hutchesone on November 30, 1615.
In 1618 he acquired the 'town' and lands of Vogrie in
Borthwick parish, at the north-east end of the Moorfoot
hUls, from EUzabeth Cockburn, sister of his brother-in-law
Francis Cockburn.^ Elizabeth had acquired her right from
Francis by virtue of an apprising.
It is not known whether Stephen Boyd ever lived at
Vogrie, but in 1631 he sold it back to WilUam Cockburn,
younger brother of Francis, and about the same time bought
from him the property of Temple, consisting of the lands
and dominical lands of Temple, with tower, manor-place,
miU, lands and town of Utterstoun, lands of CaldweU, lands
and town of Yorkstoun, with the right of presentation to
the kirk of Temple. Some time later he acquired some security
right over the adjoining lands of Esperstoun on the east side.
Temple, originally the Temple lands of BaUntrodo or
Balantradoch, lies adjoining Clerkington at the north end
of the Moorfoots, and was the site of the chief house in
Scotland of the Eoiights Templars. On the suppression of
the Order the lands had passed to the Knights Hospitallers
1 R. M. 8., 1620-33, Nos. 382, 2248 ; Reports on Parishes, 1627 (Maitland Club), p. 38.
207
208 STEPHEN BOYD OF TEMPLE
of St. John of Jerusalem, and in 1577 Lord Torphichen, the
Lord of Erection, feued them to his brother-in-law, John
Cockbxim of Ormiston, one of the Reformation leaders,
and AUson Sandilands his wife.^ Eight years later a charter
was granted to Samuel Cockburn, John's third son, and
Samuel was succeeded by his elder son Francis, who married
Marion Boyd.
Francis disponed Temple to his brother William, but
the transaction gave rise to a family feud, and the Privy
Council had to intervene. ^
On March 8, 1634 the King, on the resignation of Stephen
Boyd and Lord Torphichen the superior, erected it into a
free barony.^
This royal grant may perhaps be connected with the
fact that on December 12, 1632 King Charles n. appointed
Stephen Boyd to be one of the Commissioners of Surrenders
and Tithes.* The first Commission for Surrenders of Superi-
orities and Teinds was appointed in 1627 to work out the
situation created by the Act of Revocation, which annexed
all the Church and Crown lands that had been alienated
since the accession of Queen Mary in 1542. This involved
the transference to the Crown of the lands which had been
erected into temporal lordships at the Reformation. The
Commission was instructed to settle the terms upon which
the erected lands should be transferred, but it ultimately
left the matter to the King's pleasure, and the value of the
erected lands was fixed by him at ten years' purchase, and
that of the teinds at one-fifth of the rental of the lands from
which they were drawn. The Commission of 1632, and
also those of 1641, 1644 and 1647, were mainly occupied
with questions of valuation.
1 Charters of Torphichen, Robt. HiU, Edinr., 1830, pp. 53, 12.
2 P. C. B., 2nd Ser. i. 520; ii. 17, 65, 314.
" R. M. 8., 1634-51, No. 72.
♦ Register of Royal Letters, ii. 638.
STEPHEN BOYD OF TEMPLE 209
In 1635 Stephen Boyd was elected to the town covincil
of Edinburgh as fourth Bailie, and four years later as second
Baihe. He acted as Treasurer of the University revenues.
In the summer of 1640 the King and the Covenanters
were at open war, and a Scottish army under General Leslie
and the great Montrose marched to Newcastle. ' The castell
of Edinburgh was randerit to the covenanteris upone the
15*^ of September. . . . Ane touns man of Edinburghe called
Stevin Boyd wes maid capitane of this castell, who enterit
with sum soldiouris to keip the samen.' ^
During the winter it became apparent that Montrose,
whose loyalty to the Covenant had not been above suspicion
for a year past, was fast becoming one of its most dangerous
opponents ; so in June 1641, together with Napier of
Merchiston, Stirling of Keir and Stewart of Blackball, he
was committed to the Castle on a charge of treason against
the existing constitution.
The situation proved too much for Stephen Boyd. At
the end of the month he ' wes dischargeit and ane uther
capitane put in his place, becaus he sufferit Montross to
have conferrens with the rest.' ^ However, a month later
' ColoneU Lindesay ' (the new captain) ' being sick, he gott
warrand to put in his place for charge of the castle any
for whom he would be answerable. He named Steven
Boyd, his predecessor, whom the Committee for his too great
respect to his prisoners had shifted of that charge,' ^ with
authority from the Estates ' for uplifting the Castle rentis
and to pay the said CoUoneU Lindesay and his souldieris and
porteris in the Castle out of the said Castle rentis.' ^
Stephen Boyd died in December 1642. He left a wiU
appointing his daughter Margaret, wife of Laurence Scott
1 Memorials of the Trnlles (Spalding Club), i. 340.
2 lb., ii. 54.
^ Baillie's Letters and Journals (Bannatyne Club), i. 385.
* Thomson's Acts, v. 321a.
2d
210 STEPHEN BOYD OF TEMPLE
of Bavelaw, to be his sole executor. ^ The net value of his
personal estate was given up at £5943 Scots.
His son James, who succeeded to Temple, ^ was on the
Committee of War from 1646 to 1648, and at the Restoration
was appointed a Commissioner of Excise and a Justice of
the Peace for Midlothian.^ He died in March 1674.^
In 1641 he married Anna Henryson, eldest daughter of
WilHam Henryson of Grantoun, and had two daughters —
EHzabeth, who married James Scott, Sheriff-Clerk of Edin-
burgh, and died in 1686, and Anna, who married Alexander
Sympsone, merchant burgess of Edinburgh.^ In default of
male issue the family of Boyd of Temple became extinct,
and the property was acquired by Dundas of Arniston.
^ Edinburgh Testaments, January 29, 1645.
2 B. M. S., 1634-51, No. 1070.
3 Thomson's Acts, vi. (i.) 562 (a), 813 (a), vi. (ii.) 30 (6), vii. 90 (a), 504 (6).
* dreyfriars Register.
• Morison, Dictionary of Decisions, p. 12854 ; Inquisitiones Qenerales, No. 5806.
INDEX
Adam, Robert, 64.
Addinstone, Marion (Mrs. James Binning),
138.
Admiralty, Court of, Edinburgh, 77, 83.
Aikman, William, 56.
Aithernie, 120, 202, 203.
Aitken, John, 97.
Albinus, 68, 92.
Alston, Dr. Charles, 60, 89.
Anatomy, Professorship of, Edinburgh Uni-
versity, 57-59, 67-69, 89-99, 111-118.
Angus, James, Earl of, 37, 44.
Angus's Regiment (Cameronians), 37-45.
Archers, Royal Company of, 192.
Argaty, 84, 85, 122-124.
Argyll, Archibald, 9th Earl of, 17, 18, 20,
25-28.
John, 2nd Duke of, 73, 152.
Armadale Castle, 81.
Arms, Coats of —
Binning of Carlowriehaugh, James, 135.
of Pihnuir, Charles, 157.
of Wallyford, Sir WUliam, 135.
Boyds, 195.
Macdonald, Sir Donald, 78, 82.
Monro, Sir Alexander, 36.
Professor Alexander {Seciimlus),
107.
and Bruce quartered, 47.
Montgomery of Broomlands, 163.
Scotts of Bavelaw, 166.
of Buccleuch, 166.
of MaUeny, 185.
Atherney. See Aithernie.
Auchinbowie, 45-51, 73, 83-85, 123, 124,
127.
Auohindinny, 83, 84, 129, 174.
Auchinhood, 159, 162.
Aylmer, Elizabeth (Mrs. George Monro), 53.
Baillie of Jerviswood, Robert, 17-28,
31.
of Lamington, William, 33.
Euphemia (Mrs. James Binning), 139.
Baird of Newbyth, William, 149-151.
of Saughton, Sir Robert, 141, 150.
Balloohallan, 85.
Balnagown, Rosses of, 1.
Bank of Scotland, 73, 107, 156.
Barclay of Perceton, Sir George, 161
Sir Robert, 141.
Bartons of Bavelaw, 174, 175.
Bathgate, 11, 14, 173.
Bavelaw, 174-176, 187, 190-193.
Bearorofts, 10, 11, 35, 47, 48, 49.
Bell, Benjamin, 101.
■ Sir Charles, 97, 103.
John, 97.
Bellendens of Broughton, 10, 11, 178.
Benyns, de, 136.
Berlin, 92, 102.
Binning, alias Bunnock, William, 134, 135.
of Carlowriehaugh, Thomas, 137,
138, 198.
James, 137-139.
advocate, 135, 138-140.
Thomas, 137, 138.
Sarah (Mrs. Alexander Brand), 138,
141.
Catherine (Mrs. Laurence Scott), 139,
189, 190.
Margaret (Mrs. Ross, afterwards Mrs.
Craig), 139.
OF Wallyford, Sir William,
135, 136, 139-151, 166, 189 ; his wives,
see Scott, Elizabeth, and Liyingstone,
Mary.
William, 149, 150.
advocate, 122, 150,
151.
Laurence, 149, 150.
Catherine (Mrs. William Baird), 149.
of Pilmuir, Charles, 108, 149,
152-167 ; his wife, see Montgomery,
Margaret.
William, 156, 157.
Elizabeth (Mrs. Andrew Buchanan),
156, 157.
212
INDEX
Binning, Katharine (Mrs. David Inglis),
108, 149, 156, 157.
David Monro-, of Softlaw, 85, 122,
123, 125, 151 ; his wives, sec Home,
Sophia, and Blair, Isabella.
Robert Blair Monro-, 125.
Binnings, Monro-, of Softlaw, 122-124.
Binning-Homes of Argaty, 122, 123.
Binning-Monros of Auchinbowie, 123-125.
Blackwood. See Lawrie.
Blair of Boigsyd, Mrs. Brice (Agnes Scott),
168.
Isabella (Mrs. David Monro-Binning),
125.
Robert, Lord President, 84, 125, 169.
Blairs (Irvine), 168, 169.
Boerhaave, 58, 60.
Boig, Geilles (Mrs. Robert Boyd), 204.
Bonnington, 176, 185, 186.
Borthwick, William, 54.
The Lords, 153, 154, 173.
Bothwell Bridge, battle of, 16, 22, 148.
Bower of Edmondsham, Philadelphia (Mrs.
Hector William Monro), 53.
Bowerhouse, 153-157.
Boyd, Robert, 5th Lord, 195, 198, 199.
of Badinheath, Robert, 195.
of Trochrig, James, 195, 201.
of Kipps, Thomas, 195, 196.
James, 195, 196, 198-201, 203,
204.
Robert, 204.
John, 205.
Marion (Mrs. Francis Cockburn), 204,
208.
Christian (Mrs. William Monteith),
204.
Margaret (Mrs. David Sibbald), 204,
205.
Margaret (Lady Foulis), 206.
OF Temple, Stephen, 189, 195, 207-
209.
James, 210.
Margaret (Mrs. Laurence Scott), 189,
209.
Anna (Mrs. Alexander Sympsone),
210.
Elizabeth (Mrs. James Scott), 210.
Mrs. Hugh (Lillias Scott), 168.
Brand of Redhall, Mrs. Alexander (Sarah
Binning), 138, 141.
Sir Alexander, 145-147, 190.
Broomlands, 158-163.
Broompark, 12, 13.
Broughton, Barony of, 10, 178, 179.
Brown of the Moat, Robert, 162.
Bruce of Auchinbowie, Robert, 45,46, 47,49.
Janet (Mrs. William Bruce), 46.
— Margaret (Mrs. George Monro),
45-48.
of Riddoch, Grizel, 49, 50.
Buccleuch, Anna, Countess of, 188.
Francis, Earl of, 180, 187.
Mary, Countess of, 187, 188.
Walter, Earl of, 171, 179, 180.
Buchanan of Drumpellier, Mrs. Andrew
(Elizabeth Binning), 156.
Bunnock alias Binning, William, 134, 135.
Burnet, Margaret (Mrs. James Binning),
139.
Burnett, Catherine (Mrs. George H. M.
Binning-Home), 122.
Burns, Robert, 98.
Butelands, 173, 187, 191, 193.
Byssets of Clerkington, 178.
Callendar, Earls op, 11, 32.
Cameron, Dr. Archibald, 74.
Cameronian Regiment, 37-45.
Campbell, Hay, Lord President, 72, 89.
of Cessnock, Sir George, 16-24, 26.
Sir Hew, 17-24, 26.
Camper, Petrus, 92.
Cannon, Colonel, 41.
Cant, Margaret (Mrs. John Eastoun), 12.
Cants of Harperrig, 173.
Cardross, Henry, 3rd Lord, 37, 40, 41, 44.
Carlowriehaugh, 137-139.
Carmiohael of Aithernie, John, 201, 202.
Richard, 201-203.
Mr. James, 200, 202.
Dr. Thomas, 120, 203.
Carmichael-Smyth, Dr. James, 93, 119-
121.
Maria Agnes (Mrs. Alexander Monro,
tertms), 119, 203.
Carolina scheme. See Rye House Plot.
Carres of Cavers, 151, 154.
Carrolside, 56.
Carstairs Mill, 201.
Carstares, Rev. William, 18-24, 26.
Cessnock. See Campbell.
Chancellor, Mrs. George (Katherine E.
Skene), 130.
Chanonry, 3-6.
Cheselden, WilHam, 57, 58, 69.
Chevalier, the Old, 80, 81.
Christison, Sir Roljert, 113.
Clachnaharry, battle of, 1.
Claverhouse, James Graham of, 40, 79.
INDEX
213
Clerk of Balbirnie, Mrs. James (Jean Scott),
182.
Clerkington, 177, 178, 183, 184.
Lord. See Scott of Clerkington, Sir
WUliam.
Clonbeith, 167, 184.
'Club,' The, 30, 31, 33.
Clynie, 6.
Cochrane of Ochiltree, Sir John, 16-20,
24-28.
Cockburn, 107, 126.
Henry (Lord Cockburn), 107, 111.
of Ormiston, Adam, Lord Justice
Clerk, 33, 34.
Cockburns of Temple, 207, 208.
CoUielaw, 153-155.
Colquhoun, Lady (Charlotte M. D. Monro),
129.
Commissary Court of Stirling, 15, 35, 45,
48, 51.
Convention of Royal Burghs, 55, 166.
Cooper, Sir Astley, 94, 98.
Couston, 11-14.
Craig, Mrs. John (Margaret Binning), 139.
Craiglockhart, 105, 106, 118, 119, 126.
Cranston Riddell, 138, 139.
Crawford, Dr. James, 57, 60.
Crawfurd of Crawfurdland, John, 21, 26.
Crichton, Margaret (Mrs. John Monro),
56.
Cromartie, George, 1st Earl of, 32.
Cullen, Dr. WilUam, 69, 102.
CuUoden. See Forbes.
Dalcartt, 2, 3.
Dahnahoy, Barbara (Lady Scott), 184.
Dalrymple, Sir James (first Viscount Stair),
15, 20, 30.
Sir John (Master of Stair), 30,
33.
Darien Company, 34-36, 55.
Dawachcarty, 2, 3.
Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh, 119.
Dettingen, battle of, 48.
Dickson of Carberry, Sir Robert, 145, 147.
DUlon, Mrs. Philip (Constance C. Monro),
129.
Docharty, 2, 3.
Douglas, Archibald, Earl of, 173, 178.
Lady Mary (Lady Macdonald), 78.
Drummond, Adam, 57, 58.
Provost George, 56, 61-65, 72.
of Hawthornden, Lady (Barbara Scott),
184.
Dryburgh Abbey, 154.
Dunbar, Euphemia (Mrs. Andrew Monro),
2.
Duncan, Dr. Andrew, 68, 104, 106.
Dundas, Henry (Lord Melville), 96, 101.
Isobel (Mrs. William Binning), 150.
Robert, 1st Lord President, 152.
2nd Lord President, 72, 153.
Dundases of Arniston, 210.
of that ilk, 176.
Dunfermline Abbey, 147.
Dunkeld, battle of, 40-44.
Duntulm, 80.
Eastouns of Couston, 11-14.
Eastoun, Euphemia (Mrs. Alexander Nairn),
14.
Lillias (Mrs. Alexander Monro), 11,
14.
Mary, (Mrs. William Sandilands), 14.
Edinburgh —
Argyle Square, 52, 150.
BaUie Fyfe's Close, 55.
Canongate, 148.
Carmichael's Land, 106.
Castle Hill, 6.
Covenant Close, 56, 77, 84.
Cross, The, 83.
Fisher's Land, 155.
George Square, 86.
George Street, 118.
Gosford's Close, 84.
Great Stuart Street, 85.
Halkerston's Wynd, 55, 56.
Kinloch's Close, 55.
Lawnmarket, 83, 106, 155.
Milne's Court, 83.
Nicolson Square, 118.
Nicolson Street, 99, 107.
Niddry's Wynd, 139, 204.
Parliament Close, 148.
Richmond Street, 103.
Robertson's Close, 64.
St. Andrew Square, 107, 118.
St. Anne's Yards, 157.
Smith's Land, 55.
' Spread Eagle,' 155.
Surgeon's Square, 61.
Windmill Street, 193.
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, 56, 63-65, 69,
108.
Edinburgh University, 18, 57-62, 67-69, 76,
87, 89-96, 99-103, 111-118, 120, 150.
Edmondsham, 53.
Eglinton, Earls of, 158, 159, 160, 163, 167,
171, 176, 199.
214
INDEX
Eistoun. See Eastoun.
Eleis, Mrs. John (Margaret Scott), 168.
Elphinstone of Airth, Charles, 46.
Jean (Mrs. John Eastoun), 13.
of Quarrel, Michael, 13.
Elton, Mary (Mrs. Thomas Holyland), 121.
' Engagement,' The, 7.
Fairholm, Adam, 157.
Fairlies of Braid, 174.
Fairly of Bruntsfield, WiUiam, 21, 26.
Ferguson, Eobert, ' The Plotter,' 18, 20.
Fergusson, Professor Adam, 72.
Ferrier of Belsyde, Mrs. Louis Henry
(Charlotte Monro), 108, 125.
Fishing Company, 63, 155.
Fletcher of Saltoun, Andrew, 20, 31.
Fletcher, Mis. Henry M. (Charlotte Monro),
131.
Forbes of CuUoden, Duncan, 54.
Barbara (Mrs. George Monro), 7.
Captain James, 54, 55.
Jean (Mrs. John Monro), 54, 56.
Forresters of Corstorphine, 174, 177, 178.
Fort William, 45, 80.
Foulis, Munros of, 1.
Foulis of Colinton, James, 105, 177.
Sir James, third Bart., 206.
of Ravelston, George, 105.
Sir John, 16.
Mary (Mrs. William Scott), 192.
Fountainhall, Lord (Sir John Lauder), 15,
19, 21, 24, 29, 143.
Francis of Stane, Robert, 158.
Eraser, Janet (Mrs. George Monro), 3.
Fuird of Cranston Riddell, 138.
Fullarton of Bartonholm, Mrs. Adam
(Agnes Scott), 190.
GiLMOUK OF Craigmillar, Sir John, 105.
Glasgow, Laigh Kirk, 80.
Glasgow University, 48, 167.
Glencoe, Massacre of, 33, 45, 55.
Goldsmith, Oliver, 67, 68.
Goodsir, Dr. John, 100.
Gregory, Professor James (Mathematics), 62.
Professor James (Medicine), 65, 95,
101.
Mrs. William (Lisette Scott), 88.
Gretna Green, 121.
Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh, 6, 35,
77, 109, 122, 125, 149, 150, 189.
Gyb, James, 199-201.
Haldane of Gleneagles, Patrick, 47.
Halton, Lord (third Earl of Lauderdale),
144, 145, 182.
Hamilton, James, fourth Duke of, 29.
of Binning, Sir Thomas, 12, 137.
Hamiltons of Bangour, 47.
of Bathgate, 14, 173.
of Bearcrofts and Grange, 11.
Harperrig, 172, 173, 187, 191.
Harveian Society, 68 n, 104.
Hector, Lady (M. Georgiana Monro), 129.
Heineken, Dorothea Maria (Mrs. Donald
Monro), 88.
Henryson, Anna (Mrs. James Boyd), 210.
Heriot of Lymphoy, Anna, 105, 154, 177.
High School, Edinburgh, 111.
Highmyre, 158, 161.
Hog of Harcarse, Lady (Barbara Scott),
190.
Holyland, Mary (Mrs. James Carmichael-
Smyth), 121.
Holyrood, 10, 11, 141, 178, 185, 198, 199,
200.
Home of Argaty, Mrs. George (Jane
Monro), 84, 85.
Sophia (Mrs. David Monro-
Binning), 85, 122.
George Home Monro-Binning,
122, 123.
Dr. George Home Monro-, 124.
Home, Henry (Lord Kames), 72, 102.
Hope of Craighall, Sir Thomas, 202.
Hoppringle. See Pringle.
Houston, Mrs. Peter (Alison Scott), 182.
Howden, MUl of Nether, 153, 154.
Hume of Polwarth, Sir Patrick (Earl of
Marohmont,) 18, 19, 27, 29, 31, 37, 39,
44, 146.
David, 66, 72, 102.
Margaret (Mrs. Laurence Binning),
150.
Hunter, Janet (Mrs. Alexander Monro,
tertius), 86, 119.
Margaret (Mrs. Robert Lowis), 86,
119.
Dr. WiUiam, 70, 71, 92, 100.
Hutchesone, Elizabeth (Mrs. Stephen
Boyd), 207.
Inchaffrat, 7.
Infirmary, Edinburgh Royal, 56, 63-65, 69,
108.
IngKs of Auchindinny, Mrs. Archibald
(Jean Philp), 83.
Captain John, 84.
Mrs. John (Maria Monro), 129.
INDEX
215
Inglis of Auchindinny, Sophia (Mrs. John
Monro), 83, 84.
of Redhall, Mrs. George (Hannah
Macqueen), 81.
David, 107, 108, 149, 156.
Katharine (Mrs. Alexander Monro,
secundns), 107, 108, 156.
Thomas, 203.
Sarah (Mrs. William Rig), 203.
Innes, Dr. John, 60.
Irvine, 158-162, 166-169, 170-172, 182,
185, 190.
Dr. Christopher, 54.
Jerviswood. See Baillie, Robert.
Johnston, Dr. Samuel, 104.
of Lathrisk, David, 193.
of Warriston, Sir Archibald, 185.
Johnstone, Dr. James, 121.
Kames, Lord (Henry Home), 72, 102.
Kay's Portraits, 109.
Kelso Abbey, 154.
Kennedy, Sir Thomas, 145, 146.
Ker, Duncan, 10.
Euphemia (Mrs. John Eastoun), 13.
Kers of Moriston, 153-155.
Kerse, 10, 32.
Kersland, 192, 193.
KiUiecrankie, battle of, 79.
Kilmuir Easter, 2, 3, 7.
Kilwinning, 160, 161, 167.
Kincaids of that ilk, 105.
Kinleith, 184.
Elinloch, Sir Francis, 144.
of Alderston, Mrs. Patrick (Agnes
Scott), 182.
Kinnetas, 3.
Kipps, 195-198, 201, 204, 205.
Knox, Dr. Robert, 117.
Langbyres, 83, 84, 129.
Langside, battle of, 196.
Lauder, Sir John (Lord Fountainhall), 15,
19, 21, 24, 29, 143.
of Halton, Mrs. Richard (Marion
Scott), 182.
Lauderdale, 153.
John, Duke of, 17, 147.
first Earl of, 176.
Charles (Lord Halton), third Earl of,
144, 145, 182.
James, seventh Earl of, 157.
Lavater, 75.
Lawrie, alias Weir of Blackwood, 16, 25,
26, 37, 44, 45, 148.
Lennox Tower, alias Lymphoy, 176, 177,
183.
Leyden University, 54, 58, 60, 68, 92, 113.
Linlithgow Castle, 134, 135.
Earls of, 11, 50, 146.
Livingstone, Catharine (Mrs. Thomas Bin-
ning), 137, 138.
Margaret (Mrs. George Monro), 6.
of Ecclesmachan, William, 137.
of Gardoch, Henry, 13, 14.
of Saltcoats, Mary (Lady Binning),
Lockhart, Sir George, Lord President, 105.
London, St. George's Hospital, 87, 88.
Lewises of Plean, 86, 119.
Lumsdeo, Mrs. Michael (Janet Scott),
190.
Lymphoy, Easter, 176, 177, 183.
M'CoMisH, Jane (Mrs. George Monro)
52, 53.
M'CuUoch, Sir Godfrey, 149.
Macdonald of Sleat, Sir Donald, fourth
Bart, 77-82.
Isabella (Mrs. Alexander Monro,
primus), 77, 78, 81, 82, 90.
Janet (Mrs. Norman Macleod), 81.
Margaret (Mrs. John Macqueen), 81.
M'GiU, John, 57, 58, 64.
Mackay, General, 38, 40.
Mackenzie, Sir George, 16, 28.
Rorie, 4, 5.
Maclaurin, Colin, 62, 66, 71, 89, 191.
Makdougall, Maria Georgiana Scott, 88.
Main, William, 56.
Malleny, 176, 183, 184.
Marchmont, Earl of (Sir Patrick Hume),
18, 19, 27, 29, 31, 37, 39, 44, 146.
Marshalsea prison, 21.
Martin, Robert, 18, 19, 25, 27.
Maxwell, Margaret (Mrs. Laurence Scott),
190, 191.
Meckel, Professor, 92.
Medical Society, Edinburgh, 65, 66. See
Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Medical Society of Edinburgh, Royal, 102,
120.
Melville, George, first Earl of, 17, 18, 24,
26, 28, 29.
Menzies of Coulterallers, James, 149.
Miln of Barnton, Robert, 144, 145.
Milntown, Monros of, 1-3.
Minorca, 52.
MitchelstouD, 181.
Monmouth, James, Duke of, 17, 18, 28, 188.
216
INDEX
Monro.
spelling of name, 1.
of Milntown, John, 1.
Andrew Mor, 1, 2.
Andrew Beg, 2.
George, 2, 3.
Mr. George, elder. Chancellor of Eoss,
3-6.
Mr. George, younger, Chancellor of
of P'itlundie, Mr. George, 6, 7, 10, 54.
John, 7.
Agnes (Mrs. James Forbes), 54.
Jean (Mrs. John Monro), 54-56.
David (brother of Sir Alexander), 6,
7, 10.
OF Bearcrofts, Sir Alexander,
6, 10-36, 44, 49, 51, 54 ; early Ufe, 10 ;
purchase of Bearcrofts, 10, 11 ; early
professional career, 15, 16 ; Carolina
scheme and Eye House Plot, 16-28 ;
political career, 29-35 ; his wife (Lillias
Eastoun), 11-14; his family, viz.
Archibald, 35; Jean (Mrs. William
Sempil), Lillias and Mary, 35, 47, 55 ;
also Colonel George and John infra.
MONROS OF AnCHINBOWIE, ELDER BRANCH.
Colonel George, 11, 14, 35-48.
Alexander, 48-50.
Dr. George, 50-52.
Lieutenant "
Alexander, 50.
Cecil, 51.
Major George (41st Eegiment), 53.
Captain George Aylmer, 53.
of Edmondsham, 53.
Monro, John, surgeon (1670-1740), 35,
36, 47, 54-56, 57-60, 63 ; his wives, see
Forbes, Jean, and Crichton, Margaret.
Monro, Professor Alexander, Primus,
49, 51, 54, 55, 56, 57-77, 89-92 ; early
life and education, 57, 58 ; appointment
and work as Professor, 59-62, 67-69 ;
foundation of Eoyal Infirmary, 63-65 ;
scientific societies, 65-67, 71-73 ; private
life and character, 73-77 ; his wife (Isa-
bella Macdonald), 77, 78, 81, 82, 90.
Margaret (Mrs. James Philp), 77.
Dr. Donald, 56, 73, 76, 77, 87, 88.
Isabella Margaret (Mrs. John Scott),
88.
MoNRos of Auchinbowie, younger
BRANCH.
John, advocate, 51, 77, 83, 84.
Jane (Mrs. George Home), 84,85.
MoNROs OF Auchinbowie : Isabella (Mrs.
Ninian Lowis), 84-86.
Alexander Binning, 122, 123;
his family, 123-125.
David Binning, 123.
Alexander William, 124.
Major George, 108, 109, 119,
127.
Monro, Professor Alexander, Secundus,
67, 69, 70, 75, 77, 89-110, 111, 112, 151 ;
early life and education, 89-92 ; work
as Professor, 92-100 ; literary work, 100,
101 ; scientific societies, 102, 103 ;
private life and character, 104-110 ; his
wife (Katharine Inglis), 107, 108, 156.
IsabeUa (Mrs. Hugh Scott), 88, 108.
Charlotte (Mrs. Louis Henry Ferrier),
108, 125.
Monro-Binning of Softlaw, David, 85,
122, 123, 125, 151 ; his wives, see Home,
Sophia, and Blair, Isabella.
Monro, Professor Alexander, Tertius,
95, 111-119, 151 ; his wives, see Car-
michael - Smyth, Maria Agnes, and
Hunter, Janet.
His family, viz : —
of Craiglockhart, Captain Alexander,
126.
Dr. James, 126.
Henry, 127.
Sir David, 128, 129.
Major William, 129.
Maria (Mrs. John Inglis), 129.
Catherine (Lady Steuart), 129, 130.
Georgiana (Mrs. George Skene), 130.
— — Harriet (Mrs. Alexander Binning-
Monro), 123, 131.
Isabella, 131.
Charlotte (Mrs. Henry M. Fletcher),
131.
Monteith of Carriber, Mrs. William
(Christian Boyd), 204.
Montgomery of Assloss, Alexander, 161.
of Auchinhood, Hew, 159.
of Broomlands, Hew (i), 159, 160.
George, 160, 161.
Hew (ii), 156, 160-162.
Eobert, 160, 162.
Hew (III), 160, 162, 163.
Margaret (Mrs. Charles Binning),
156, 162.
of Greenfield, William, 158.
of Liingshaw, David, 18, 24, 26.
of Skelmorlie, Sir James, 30, 33.
of Wrae, John, 155, 162.
INDEX
217
Montrose, James, Marquis of, 209.
Morison, Katharine (Mrs. William Scott of
Clerkington), 184.
Morton, Kobert, seventh Earl of, 78.
James, fourteenth Earl of, 66.
Mowbrays of Barnbougle, 175, 176.
Mundell, Mr., 83, 87, 89.
Mure of Rowallan, Sir William, 21, 26.
Elizabeth (Mis. John Blair), 168.
in the Well, John, 199.
Murray of Philiphaugh, James, 19, 20, 23,
24, 27.
of Tippermuir, 21.
Nairn of Greenyards, Mrs. Alexander
(Euphemia Eastoun), 14.
Namur, siege of, 45, 54.
Napier, Mrs. G. V. C. (Isabella Monro),
127.
Newmore, 2, 3.
Nisbet, Eupham (Mrs. David Blair),
169.
Alexander, 134, 136, 185.
North Berwick, Nunnery of, 202.
Oxford University, 81, 123, 127.
Paips of Wallyford, 147.
Paris, 68, 63, 69. 102, 112, 122, 123, 141.
Parkhill of Craiglockhart, John, 105.
Paul's Work, Edinburgh, 141, 142.
Peebles of Broomlands, 158, 159.
Penston's Tavern, Edinburgh, 30.
Philosophical or Physical Society, 66, 67,
102.
Philp of Greenlaw, Mrs. James (Margaret
Monro), 77, 83.
Physical Society, Royal, 103.
Physical or Philosophical Society, 66, 67,
102. See also Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Physicians, Royal College of, Edinburgh,
59, 60, 63, 65, 69, 92, 95, 102, 111, 117,
118.
Physicians, Royal College of, London, 87,
120, 121.
PUmuir, 108, 153-157.
Pitlundie, 7, 54.
Plantation of Kirks, Commission for, 15,
31, 148.
Plean, West, 86.
Plummer, Dr. Andrew, 60, 66, 89.
Porteous of Craiglockhart, George, 105.
Preston, Mr. George, 57.
Prestonpans, battle of, 73.
2
Primrose, Sir Archibald, 15, 188.
Mary (Mrs. George Monro), 6, 10.
Pringle of Torwoodlee, George, 18, 19, 27.
■ James, 34.
■ Elizabeth (Mrs. Laurence Scott), 181,
182.
Violet (Mrs. James Scott), 186.
William, 159, 181.
Rab, Mr. James, 95, 96.
Raeburn, Sir Henry, 108, 109, 118, 122.
Ramsay, Allan, the younger, 72, 75.
Redhall, 81, 129, 174.
Regiments ; —
Scots Greys, 192.
Sir Henry Belasyse's (6th), 54.
Major-General John Hill's (Uth), 48.
Colonel Duroure's (12th), 48.
Earl of Panmure's (25th), 52.
Cameronians (26th), 37-45.
41st Foot, 53.
Royal Highlanders (42nd), 53.
Cameron Highlanders (79th), 129.
108th Foot, 192.
Colonel John Buchan's, 46.
Colonel George Hamilton's, 45.
Colonel Hill's, 55.
College of Justice Volunteers, 29.
Stirlingshire Yeomanry, 85.
'Resurrecting,' 61, 97, 98, 117, 118, 119.
Riddell of Craiglockhart, Sir A. Oliver, 126,
193.
Riddoch, 49-51.
Rig of Aithernie, William, 203.
Robertson of Ladykirk, William, 190.
Principal William, 72, 102.
Rogerson, Mrs. T. Stanley (Maria E. J.
Monro), 129.
Romney, 121.
Rosemarkie, 3, 7.
Ross of Swanston, Mrs. William (Margaret
Binning), 139.
ChanceUary of, 3, 6.
of Halkhead, Lords, 158.
Rosses of Balnagown, 1.
Rothes, John, sixth Earl of, 142, 143.
Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh,
59, 60, 63, 65, 69, 92, 95, 102, 111, 117,
118.
London, 87, 120, 121.
Surgeons, Edinburgh, 55, 59-65,
69, 71, 73,95-97, 115, U7.
Infirmary, Edinburgh, 56, 63-65, 69,
108.
Medical Society, 102, 120.
218
INDEX
Royal Physical Society, 103.
Society of Edinburgh, 65-67, 102, 103,
118.
London, 69, 87, 120.
Koxburghe, John, first Duke of, 152.
Russell, William, Lord, 17, 18, 28.
Rutherford, Dr. John, 60, 69, 89.
Rye House Plot, 16-28.
St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, 86.
St. George's Hospital, London, 87, 88.
St. Ninians, 45, 48.
Saltcoats, 149.
Sandilands of Torphichen, James, 105.
Mrs. William (Mary Eastoun), 14.
See also Torphichen.
Scotsloch, 166, 167, 168, 172, 182, 185.
Scotts of Buccleuch, 166, 171, 179, 180,
187, 188.
of Murdostoun, 166,
Scott of Scotsloch, Hew, 166-168.
James, 167, 168, 169, 172, 184.
W.S., 185.
Susanna (Mrs. James Blair), 168.
Jonnet (Mrs. John Blair), 168.
OF Harperrig and Bavelaw,
Laurence (i), 170-182.
his wife. See Pringle, Elizabeth.
Marion (Mrs. James Scott, afterwards
Mrs. Richard Lauder), 182.
Margaret (Mrs. William Wallace),
182.
Agnes (Mrs. Patrick Kinloch), 182.
Jean (Mrs. James Clerk), 182.
Alison (Mrs. Peter Houston), 182.
of Clerkington, Sir William (Lord
Clerkington), 180, 183, 184, 185, 187,
188.
Laurence, 184.
of Clonbeith, WiUiam, 184.
Walter, 184.
of MaUeny, John, 184, 185, 191.
Rev. Robert, 185.
Barbara (Lady Drummond), 184.
Agnes (Lady Home), 184.
of Bonnington, James, 180, 185, 186,
189.
OF Bavelaw, Laurence (ii), 16, 139,
141, 147, 149, 187-189, 209; his
wives, see Boyd, Margaret, and Bin-
ning, Catherine.
Laurence (iii), 189, 190, 191.
William (iv), 189, 191.
Charles (v), 189, 191.
John (vi), 191, 192.
Scott of Bavelaw, William (vii), 191, 192.
William (viii), 192, 193.
Laurence (ix), 192.
Charles (x), 192, 193.
Elizabeth (Lady Binning), 141, 149,
189.
Margaret (Mrs. Hugh Wallace), 189.
— — Barbara (Lady Hog), 190.
Christian (Lady Brand), 190.
Janet (Mrs. Michael Lumsden), 190.
Agnes (Mrs. Adam Fullarton), 190.
Barbara (Mrs. Charles Scott), 191.
James, 180, 182.
Laurence, merchant in Glasgow, 191,
192.
Commander Charles J., 193.
• Mrs. James (Elizabeth Boyd), 210.
of Galashiels, Hugh, 24.
of Gala, Mrs. Hugh (Isabella Monro),
88, 108.
Mrs. John (Isabella Margaret Monro),
88.
Lisette (Mrs. William Gregory), 88.
Walter, Earl of Tarras, 18, 19, 22-24,
27, 187.
Sir Walter, 111.
Scottinflat, 12, 13.
Select Society, the, 71, 72, 73, 83.
Sempil of Cathcart, Mrs. William (Jean
Monro), 35.
Shaftesbury, Anthony, first Earl of, 16, 17,
20, 27.
Shephard, Thomas, 20, 27.
Sheriffmuir, battle of, 80.
Shields, Alexander, 38, 39, 44, 45.
Shielfield, Over, 154, 155.
Sibbald, Mrs. David (Margaret Boyd), 204,
205.
Sir Robert, 48, 196, 197, 204, 205.
Siddons, Mrs., 104.
Sinclair, Dr. Andrew, 60, 89.
Skene of Rubislaw, Mrs. George (Georgiana
Monro), 130.
Sleat, Macdonalds of, 77, 78-82.
Smith, Aaron, 17, 25.
Adam, 72.
Smyth of Aithernie, Dr. James, 120, 203.
Dr. James Carmichael-, 93, 119-121.
Maria Agnes Carmichael- (Mrs.
Alexander Monro, tertius), 119, 203.
Society of Improvers in Agriculture, 71, 155.
for Encouragement of Arts, Sciences,
etc., 72.
for promoting the English Language, 73.
for Relief of the Industrious Poor, 150.
INDEX
219
Society, Harveian, 68 u, 104.
Royal Medical, 102, 120.
Royal Physical, 103.
Medical, afterwards the Philosophical
or Physical Society, finally the Royal
Society of Edinburgh, 65, 66, 67, 102,
103, 118.
Royal, London, 69, 87, 120.
Wernerian, 118.
Softlaw, 122-124, 151.
Somervell, Margaret (Mrs. James Eastoun),
14.
Spence, William, 21, 22.
' Squadrone,' the, 152.
Stair, Viscount (Sir James Dalrymple), 15,
20, 30.
Lady, 32, 33.
Master of (Sir John Dalrymple), 30,
Stane Castle, 158, 159.
Steuart, James, Lord Advocate, 20, 33.
Lady (Catherine Monro), 129.
Stewart, Anne (Mrs. Alexander Monro),
48, 83.
Archibald, Lord Provost, 150.
Dugald, 72.
Elizabeth (Mrs. William Binning),
156, 157.
Professor Matthew, 89.
• Mr. Walter, 191.
Stewarts of Ballochallan, 85.
of Tillicultry, 48, 49.
Stirling and Stirlingshire, 15, 19, 24, 29,
31, 33, 35, 40, 45, 51, 73.
Strange, Sir Robert, 66.
Suddie, 3, 6.
Surgeons, Royal College of, Edinburgh, 55,
59-65, 69, 71, 73, 95-97, 115, 117.
Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh, 56, 59, 75.
Surgery, Professorship of, Edinburgh Uni-
versity, 95-97, 112, 114-117.
Sutherland, John, eighth Earl of, 1.
Tain, 2, 15.
Tarbat, George, Lord, 32.
Tarlogie, 2.
Tarras, Walter, Earl of, 18, 19, 22-24, 27,
187.
Teinds, Commission for, 15, 31, 208.
Temple, 207, 208, 210.
Temple Lands, 172, 196, 207.
Tolbooth Prison, Edinburgh, 21, 23, 24.
Torphichen, 12, 137, 138, 195, 196, 197,
204, 205.
James, first Lord, 11, 137, 173, 198.
second Lord, 172, 173.
John, fourth Lord, 14, 208. See also
Sandilands.
Torwoodhead, 14.
Trinity College, Edinburgh, 176.
Tron Church, Edinburgh, 148, 188.
Troutbeck, Mrs. John (Harriet B. Monro),
127.
TuUibardine, John, Earl of, 34, 146.
Tweeddale, John, first Earl of, 153, 187.
Tytler, Mjs. George M. Eraser- (Jane
Georgiana Skene), 130.
Universityof Edinburgh, 18,67-62,67-69,
76, 87, 89-96, 99-103, 111-118, 120, 150.
of Glasgow, 48, 167.
of Leyden, 54, 58, 60, 68, 92, 113.
of Oxford, 81, 123, 127.
LTniversities' Commission, Scottish, 1826,
115-117.
Veitch, William, 26, 28.
Vicaradge, Frances (Mrs. Charles Scott),
192, 193.
Vogrie, 207.
Wallace, Alison (Mrs. William Pringle),
181.
of Ingliston, Mrs. Hugh (Margaret
Scott), 189.
of Shewalton, Mrs. William (Margaret
Scott), 182.
WaUyford, 147, 148, 150.
Waterman, Mrs. T. P. (Maria A. Binning
Monro), 125.
Watsons of Aithernie, 203.
Watson's Hospital, George, 156.
Weir, alias Lawrie of Blackwood, 16, 25,
26, 37, 44, 45, 148.
Wernerian Society, 118.
White, Ann Sarah (Mrs. George Aylmer
Monro), 53.
Whytt, Dr. Robert, 69.
Windsor, 18, 54.
Wiselawmill, 153, 154.
Witchcraft, 15, 168.
Wood, Sir Mark, Bart., 121.
Woodside, 12, 13.
Worcester, battle of, 7, 10 .
Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty
at the Edinburgh University Press
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